Ruggbutt

7 more minutes then I sit down and be silent to remember those that have served. You guys are heroes.

Good for her. And there's nothing wrong with instilling Corps values in kids. My grandpa was a mustang in the Corps. 22 years he served. His brother served 30. Tomorrow is the Corps birthday. God bless the Corps and say a prayer to Chesty Puller.

I'm sending the good vibes from Arizona. She's a wonderful lady, tell her we're pulling for her.

ROFL. Only Ken would do something like that!

Lock On Platinum is all you'll need.

That looks like a worthwhile investment for anyone looking for new hardware. Thanks for the heads up Buzzz. Tell everyone at Check Six I said hi, they've been good to me with my Lock On mods for many years. That's an awesome community.

Set up your countermeasures control panel manually. Set flare drop amount for 999. Toggle flares. Fantastic!!! These were shot sequentially.

Thank you. Thank you twice actually. You're the one who gave me the heads up about the Obutto.

I admit it, I have cable management issues. I couldn't stand all the loose cables in the Obutto, it made the sleek design look less sexy. So I bought some 1" split loom (got it at Fry's Electronics) and I placed all the cables in it and zip tied it to the frame of the Obutto. It looks awesome too. Split loom is used in the car manufacturing industry as well as in race cars, so it was actually meant to do what I'm using it for. I got the 1" diameter cuz I have a DVI cable, power cable for monitor, speaker cable for monitor, TrackIR cable, cables for the wheel/shifter/throttle/power supply and mouse cable hidden within the split loom. Here's a couple close ups.

I think the term Beagle is one the Brits use. They call the C model the "Budgie".

I added the price into the story. I'm going to do some figuring and it's prolly gonna replace the pit I already have.

The review is posted.............. http://combatace.com/topic/59958-obutto-gaming-cockpit/

Obutto It's pronounced "Oh, but Oh!". So you want to know what an Obutto is. It's Flight Sim goodness. It's your very own cockpit from which you can strike the enemy where ever they may sortie from. It's an F-15 pit. It's a Spitfire pit. It's a P-38 Lighting pit. It's all of these, depending on how you wish to place your flight controllers. Even if you fly with a yoke and a throttle quadrant. Or if you fly with a HOTAS. Center stick or side stick position, it doesn't matter, Obutto can be configured the way you want to fly. Construction The Obutto is constructed of heavy gauge tubular steel. It's coated in a beautiful matte black finish that's tough as nails. The seat is a racing style bucket seat that is adjustable fore and aft as well as being able to recline. The seat is two tone black and gray and has fantastic lumbar support. It's extremely comfortable and the cloth that covers it is thick and durable. It also has Obutto's logo on the front headrest part of the seat as well as a large "Obutto" embroidered across the back headrest part of the seat. The heavy wear areas of the seat are reinforced by a vinyl that has a carbon fiber type pattern to it. Assembly You'll need some tools for assembly. Three to be exact. You'll need a 6mm allen wrench, and a 1/2 and 9/16 wrench (or crescent wrench). You'll also want to pick up some 4mm M4x 10mm screws. You'll need 4 of them. More on that later....... I happened to have all those tools on hand (I'm a contractor). I like that cheapie tools aren't included with the Obutto. I've hurt myself plenty of times using wrenches stamped out of metal stock or busted knuckles when soft steel allen wrenches give way. Do yourself a favor, head over to Home Depot and pick up the tools you'll need. It will make assembly easier and you'll not have to head to Walgreens for Band-Aids and Neosporin. The first thing you'll notice is that the parts are wrapped in bubble wrap. They're wrapped extremely well. There wasn't one scratch on the finish of my pit. In fact, the hardest thing about putting the pit together was unwrapping it. Seriously, it's that easy to put together! The instructions were written by someone who speaks English as a first language. They were clear and concise (and a bit humorous). Even if you aren't mechanically inclined you will be able to assemble the pit. It's a no brainer. The Obutto comes in several main parts. The base for the monitor stand and the base for the seat. The seat itself comes mounted on sliding rails so you'll only have to bolt the seat onto the seat base, it takes 4 bolts to do so. The monitor stand base and seat bolt together as well. What you'll find with the Obutto is that there are many adjustments you can make when attaching the arms for the peripherals. Along each side of the seat base there are 7 holes that run the length of the base. These are the mounting holes for the arms that you'll use for your keyboard arm, throttle and stick arm. If you choose not to go side stick you can mount the arm where the monitor base and seat base bolt together. If you use a yoke you can mount it on the steering wheel mount. It's adjustable fore and aft for the perfect fit. The pedal base can be adjusted up or down as well as fore and aft. It's covered with a rubber non slip coating that really works well. My CH Pro Pedals didn't slide once on it. Neither did my girlfriends G27 racing pedals. I'm using a single 26" monitor and bolting it to the monitor mount was simple. This is where you'll need the 4mm VESA mounting screws. The mount itself is drilled for all the variations of VESA bolt patterns. You can adjust the monitor higher or lower on it's mounting uprights as well. As I said before, everything with the Obutto is adjustable. There is an option for a 3 monitor stand if you prefer. Testing I tested the pit for flight sims as well as for racing. I don't do a lot of racing but my girlfriend does. When I ordered the Obutto I asked Chris Dunagan (the man behind Obutto) to send me all the parts needed to do a sidestick sim pit as well as a racing pit. I put the flight sim pit together first. That sounds like more than it really is as you can easily remove and swap parts around with the Obutto. I can convert from F/S to racing in about 5 minutes, and most of that time is swapping out controllers. The first thing I noticed is how comfortable the seat was. It's easy to adjust, like the seat in your car. The adjustment lever is front center under the seat. The reclining feature of the seat allows you to sit more or less upright, depending upon how you like to fly/drive. That lever is where the back meets the seat. I fly sidestick, so I adjusted the up/down arms for my Ch Pro Throttle and Fighterstick. Adjustment is done with star shaped handles connected to bolts that pin the arms in place. It took all of a minute to set the pit up for my use. I recommend using industrial strength velcro for mounting your stick and throttle. Chris (from Obutto) recommended it and it works like a champ! I flew Flaming Cliffs 2 for hours in the Obutto. I enjoyed the pit immensely. The monitor is plenty close enough so that you can spot bandits at distance. The fact that I could fine tune where my controllers were gave me greater accuracy when flying. The pit is nice and stable, sturdy. Side to side movement in the Obutto results in very little movement of the monitor. My Obutto is set up on carpet with heavy pad so I expected a little "give". I'd be willing to wager that if set up on a floor that didn't move you wouldn't see any monitor movement. Next I set the pit up for racing. My girlfriend has a Logitech G27 setup and races Dirt 2. It took 5 minutes to swap controllers and she had the Obutto adjusted in no time for her driving marathon. When asked what she liked about the Obutto she said that it was very comfortable. She liked how she could sit in it for hours and her legs wouldn't fall asleep. She also like how she could adjust the seat and her controllers to replicate what it felt like in her car (a 25th Anniversary Z-28). The distance between the screen and her eyes was perfect, she didn't need her reading glasses to read fine print. Needless to say she loved the Obutto. She loved it so much that it's no longer mine........................Her argument is that I already have a pit built (those of you who know me have seen pics) and that she needed something. I didn't have an argument except that I liked the Obutto and that didn't fly, cuz she liked it too so one cancels out the other. It's now her new "desk". She sits in it surfing the web and her computer desk here in the office is bare. I even went into the other room where her Obutto is and found her in the seat reclined, sleeping while listening to music. Options real reclining car sports seat real car seat sliders for easy adjustment removable swiveling & telescoping keyboard/mouse tray very stable thick walled carbon steel frame (3.2cm diameter pipe) angled height adjustable steering wheel mount with over 12" of travel removable VESA monitor stand for hard mounting your LCD monitor (uses standard VESA bolt patterns 75x75mm, 100x100mm, 200x100mm) height & distance adjustable rubber covered pedal tray, also fully removable seperate H-pattern shifter mount (mounts on either side & distance adjustable) Accessories Include: Triple monitor mount Black acrylic tabletop Flight stick/Throttle mount Pluses Heavy duty construction Easy assembly Infinitely adjustable Can be configured for other duties in a few minutes Price is reasonable, especially compared to competitors' offerings Negatives Needs a cup holder. (my girlfriend says that's the only thing missing) Final Thoughts I've been fortunate that I've been to many trade shows and have stick time in many of the offerings out there that are similar to what Obutto offers. I wasn't a fan of the ones I had tried as they were too flimsy or weren't ergonomic enough to suit my tastes. When I contacted Chris Dunagan about reviewing the Obutto I had a negative opinion about gamer cockpits. I'm pleasantly surprised to say that they aren't all created equal. My biggest gripe was flimsy construction. I didn't want to worry about ruining a $600 monitor by shaking it to death. Some of the other options were hard to get in and out of. Some didn't have enough mounting places for all my gear. The Obutto is a great piece of kit at an extremely fair price. I like it so much that I'm seriously considering ordering another one and replacing the pit I built from scratch. It has less of a footprint than my exisiting pit and it's as easy to get in and out of. It looks Sierra Hotel! The matte black finish looks like pure business. You can marathon fly/drive for hours. I found the time went by quickly, often I had to be called for dinner because I was having too much fun. Chris Dunagan, creator of the Obutto is a gamer. You can see him using the Obutto on You Tube. He's the guy in the pics on the Obutto website. And judging by the design of the gamer pit Chris is a bit of an engineer. I'm of the opinion that it's a gamer that knows what gamers want. Mission accomplished! One last thing I'd like to touch on is how receptive Chris was to my questions and comments. He took time out to answer a half a dozen emails from me. In my experience that shows that the man stands behind his product and he loves what he does. I'd like to thank Chris for all the help he provided me regarding this review. You're aces Chris. Head over to the Obutto website and check out what Chris has to offer. Price is $329USD.

Good point Dave. The F4 crowd is the reason I left Frugal's. That and the good 'ol boy clique. Basically you could talk mad smack to anyone you wanted as long as you were in the kool kidz krowd. LOMAC bashing was part of that. The funniest thing is that one of the most vocal LOMAC/ED bashers is now posting on ED's forums and decrying how wonderful ED and DCS is. DCS: A10 is going to be killer when it's finished, no doubt. But I just find it funny that the aforementioned gentleman (Mower) is now a convert. What's next? Bard is gonna show up and give ED love too?

Excellent point. I bought the beta, and was immediately banned by ED's producer. I thought after 5 years he'd stop having a hard on for me. So I contacted tech support and requested my money back. Part of the deal was access to the beta forums. I wasn't afforded that deal and after being replied to by ED's customer service and explaining that I would never be able to post in their forums my email has been silent. Looks like it's off to my credit card company to file a fraud charge. I'm going to be downtown next week, prolly file a complaint with AZ Attorney General as well. I don't care that a particular person who works for ED doesn't like me or won't grant me rights that I've purchased. However, I expect to be treated like every other customer who has laid down their cash. It's unprofessional and it shows that the integrity of said producer goes out the window when my $60 means nothing while the rest of yours means something. I'd have even been happy had on the main page it said "everyone who preorders gets the beta and access to the beta forums except ruggbutt". At least then I'd have been apprised of the situation before purchase. ED are fascists on their boards and so is their producer.

Gonna use this as my desktop:

I got my first Mav kill after you hopped off Ventrilo last nite Dave. My g/f ran in and wondered why I was whoopin' it up.

Me and three friends went to see him right after his TV show was canceled. It wasn't cheap but it was money well spent. The guy is hilarious.

Those are beautiful.

I shot those with a Nikon D100 and a "Bigma" (Sigma 50x500).

Nice pics! You've been busy. Thanks for sharing those, loved 'em.

It doesn't work nearly as good as TrackIR does and you're constantly having to fiddle with it.

..........DCS A-10 will be released tomorrow. Don't ask how I know. A birdie told me.

w00t! I busted my butt getting things set up for my employees so I can take the rest of the day off. Gonna treat myself to ribs at Famous Dave's for lunch.