Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog: to buy or not buy, info wanted pls

[TOX 0]

Here are some shots from the Thrustmaster manual without any annotations. I print these out for taking notes, design, and testing. When finalized, use Paint or similar to label a set with desired assignments. The Thrustmaster manual has these drawings with the switch numbers on them.

 

great pics Henry, should help warty fans here, thanks for your post.

in the meantime, hows your warty going?

you managed to set it all up ok?

any tips and tricks will be welcome here )

[JasonHarris 96]

I think, from memory if you were to go in to the hog software, target, and make a profile - maybe one you wont even use but label the buttons then there is an option to print out a graphic of the stick and throttle with all your annotations.

[hs118 707]

in the meantime, hows your warty going?

you managed to set it all up ok?

any tips and tricks will be welcome here )

 

It's going well, thanks for asking. Have the HOTAS set up for several MIL aircraft, some I use the switches to do cold/dark start sequences. Some aircraft I have the switches set up for functions during flight. Probably the best tip I could give would be "LINDA, LINDA, LINDA" (kudos to Robert M. for his advice). I use LINDA/FSUIPC exclusively for control/joystick authority, have never installed the Thrustmaster software so no good comparison.

 

Hope this helps.

[TOX 0]

hey guys, whats the latest with warty profiles or uses in various airplanes?

[odourboy 1,288]

I wanted to resurrect this old thread since several of the 'early adopters' of the Warthog participated in it. I'm in the midst of making a decision on selecting a new HOTAS and wanted to ask; now that the hog has been out for a little over three years, how has it's longevity been... have any chronic failures or quality issues emerged? If so, how did you deal with them.

 

Thanks!

[JasonHarris 96]

Odourboy, I hear from various owners of the hog.   The extension that I posted a picture of is one I used to make and sell.  I no longer do it but I started making them a while back and sold around 100 of them to around 90 people.

 

    I know of about three failures but a couple of them related to early firmware issues that affected more people than that.   Since a new firmware, which is years back now it's not been an issue.  The other one I know about is a hat switch that started to get hard to use and was replaced with a new unit.

 

    I don't keep in touch with everyone but move in circles where the hotas is the main hotas.  I don't remember the last complaint - other than cost when comparing

[odourboy 1,288]

Thanks Jason! That's a pretty positive endorsement. Appreciate your input both here and my other thread.

 

Cheers!

[DinoCarlton 0]

I've had this stick for just under a year now and I can say, as Luc has already mentioned, it is a no brainer. This is simply an awesome controller. I had a Saitek X52 pro and it was OK, but compared to the Hotas Warthog it's not even in the same ballpark! The stick comes with a disc and software but I just ditched that and use LINDA for the buttons and FSUIPC for all the slider controls, it works like a dream. Here is a short vid which I made earlier this year to show guys the amount of possibilities when assigninbg buttons. It truly is a superb bit of kit...

Thanks for the video review @Rockliffe, it has confirmed to me that I should also invest in one of these in the near future! Do you have any thoughts on the GA/Jet question I recently posted in the Hardware forum?

[tam210 0]

Buy it ive had mine 2 years and is the best stick and throttle combo the build quality is fantastic not cheap plastic and is very precise.

 

The only slight niggles is the stick base plate is massive and i mean huge and also weighs a ton you can however remove it and this is where my other niggle appears you remove the plate and its much easier to place it where you want but with the plate removed all the wires mechanisms are exposed in my opinion it should have a small protective plate over it then that connects to the big base plate.

 

The only other thing and this is where it really starting to annoy me is where you would sit your hand on the stick the round grip bit is the lacquer or paint what ever you want to call it has came off this thing has never been abused or man handled and at the price this costs i do not expect this to happen also underneath where the lacquer has came off it feels like solid plastic but they have put a metal paint on it to cover this up.

 

So other than these 2 minor annoyances this is the best although i have to question the quality of the finish as at the time this happened this stick was hardly used i am however very ott you will love it however ☺

[Pgt69 0]

See my ad warthog for sale in controllers

[dbw1 444]

Another option top check out is the saitek X65. I've had one for the better part of 10 years and it still works flawlessly. They are not produced anymore but sometimes one comes up for sale. When I bought it there were numerous issues with the thrust master. The newest wart hog looks very good indeed.