Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog

[JediMaster 451]

Check out TM's home page and they're teasing the announcement of a new all-metal HOTAS. No pictures, no details, just the name "Warthog".

[Cali 6]

I wonder if your gonna have to mod it to make it flyable?

[+streakeagle 871]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

In a time of economic challenges, there are now three new high end HOTAS setups?

There is also an independent company planning to market a high-end setup with a variety of stick and throttle grips.

Okay, what is CH Products gonna do?

I have so badly wanted to buy CH for its quality, but just don't like their throttle at all and don't really want an F-16 look-a-like stick either.

If CH would put their name and quality into a HOTAS/rudder setup that has the best features of all the other sticks, that would suit me fine.

If the independent company follows up with decent hardware and software at decent prices, they may open up a new market: interchangable B-8/F-15/A-10/F-16 stick grips and throttles including dual throttle support. Of course they don't have force feedback :(

CH... get your but in gear and make force feedback stick AND rudder pedals (almost all planes have a real or artificial pedal shake that warns of stall conditions.

[Danish_Squid 0]

I preordered one from Amazon.co.uk yesterday, considering that it is just 200dkr more expensive than the HOTAS Cougar I have no problems with it's price.

Another thing about it's sturdyness it should be a vast improvement over the Cougar is the lack of pots. Quoted from Steve Davies over at DCS the stick is a lot better than the Cougar and even better than the CH gear that I am using at the moment.

My two main reasons for getting this is the dual throttle, and the plug & play (or plug & pray if you like) features for the upcoming DCS: A-10C.

 

I will off course post some impressions when it is released.

 

Cheers

Staffan

[JediMaster 451]

I can't believe they're staying out of the pedals market. This would've been a prime opportunity after skipping it for the Cougar.

[Revvin 1]

I'm surprised they have yet to come up with a successor to the old Thrustmaster Elite pedals. They seem happy for the likes of CH, Saitek and Simped to fight it out there for standalone pedals. Saitek have just announced a new set of pedals: http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/compedals.html

[JediMaster 451]

They made pedals before anyone else that I can recall. I have their original gold-anodized RCS pedals from the early 90s still for my Cougar. I never got the Elites. Until I got my G940, I'd never used any but those.

[Revvin 1]

I don't remember seeing another brand before my first set years ago which were Thrustmaster Elites but CH Products were not very well advertised or easily available in the UK in the early 90's. I replaced those with CH Products Pro Pedals for the added toe brake capability. Perhaps rudder pedals will be a future product

[Cali 6]

I'm waiting to see how much it's going to cost. I'm not a big fan of the dual throttle (I like the F-16 throttle) but we'll see soon enough.

[JediMaster 451]

I'm going to guess it will be $300 or so (which as it doesn't come with rudder pedals puts it at the same premium price as the Cougar, while CH and Logi you can get HOTAS + rudders for that) because I really don't know if they'll get away with more.

[Revvin 1]

Amazon.co.uk were taking pre-orders at £349 IIRC but then the product was de-listed by them. At that price it puts it at around £100 more than I paid for my Cougar when it was released back around 8 years ago? I don't think £100 more than the Cougar is an unreasonable price taking into consideration inflation and the extra features. Saitek launched their X65F at £329.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Revvin

[Cali 6]

If it's $300-350, then I'll most likely get it. But then I'll have to decide if I want to sell my Cougar, if I haven't modded it by then. I don't understand why everyone is making a big deal about dual throttles?

[JediMaster 451]

Should the plane have dual engines (and the sim allows it, I know Il-2 doesn't despite having a ton of twins), it makes it a little easier to control the plane in an engine-out situation or during start-up/shut-down procedures. However, 95% of the time you keep them together, so it's not that big a deal. I have it on my G940 and so far I've never needed to use it.

[Cali 6]

However, 95% of the time you keep them together, so it's not that big a deal. I have it on my G940 and so far I've never needed to use it.

 

That's what I'm talking about. I'm sure most people have engine start up and shut down buttons programmed somewhere. If I have an engine problem, I just press the button for that engine.

[JediMaster 451]

Well, I suppose if your rudder is shout out you can use differential thrust.

[JRskipper 0]

One place in the US has marked it for pre-order but I can't get that one to work for me. We need to locate another.

 

 

[+streakeagle 871]

The Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS looks impressive, but so did the Cougar. I hope it is as good as it looks, especially after a few years of use. Now, how will the CH Products HOTAS compare? As much as I would like to have force feedback, the G940 has a really bad reputation between hardware, firmware, and software issues. My Saitek X-52 Pro is working fine, but I really like the A-10 replica throttle. If only they had modeled the A-10A or F-15A with my beloved B-8 stick grip. But for the throttle alone I could live with an F-16 style grip. Right now, my F-4 Phantom stick uses MS Sidewider Pro USB guts. It works, but I think I would like to use something with more resolution and stability (i.e. ditch the pots, higher resolution A-to-D converters, and USB 2.0 interface).

 

Maybe I should forget about configuration software and use the generic USB card chosen by the independent stick design? As long as I am using the MS Sidewinder guts, I have two unused pots (throttle and rudder) that could become dual throttle axis and a few unused buttons that could become speed brake, chaff, flares, etc.

 

But I would really like to mix my F-4 stick with a throttle comparable to the A-10 throttle since I can't find and/or afford to get real F-4 throttle handles right now.

[Cali 6]

Streakeagle, that's why I would wait 6-12 months before I bought the warthog. See what people say after they had some use put through them. I know the virtual thunderbirds use it, but I want to see what people that fly combat missions say. And how they hold up after some time.

[JediMaster 451]

Especially at $500!!

I bought my G940 right as the Warthog was announced, leaving me with some buyer's remorse. Hearing it would be $500, though, I was relieved in retrospect as I wasn't going to go that route. For $300 I got a stick, throttle, AND pedals with FFB. I also have more faith in Logitech, as a large company, to keep up with its drivers and any possible hardware fixes while TM's record with the Cougar made me lose faith in them.