Comments on: A realistic A-10 joystick?

Question: A realistic A-10 joystick?

muddgirl — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:04:57 -0800

A friend needs help finding a realistic A-10 joystick.

For a flight simulator. Can anyone help him out?

By: paulsc

paulsc — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:20:55 -0800

That is going to be a do it yourself project, I'm afraid. The A-10 Warthog is an admirable, if retro, airplane, right down to it's cockpit controls. The big black stick thing in the middle of the linked photo, is its "joystick" or coordinated aileron/elevator control device. Basically, a 2 foot long metal "stick" with a curved handle and some interesting buttons for the armament packages.

If your friend is just having problems using a common joystick with some the A-10 flight simulator games out there, there are patches sometimes available to help.

By: krautland

krautland — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:46:14 -0800

the stick reminds me a lot of the old thrustmaster FCS (=flight control system) joystick I had around 1994 or 95. it was a well-made thing I paid close to 200 bucks for back in the days and it lasted for about ten years.

the fcs looks kind of unavailable on ebay and I would advise against going for any of their other joysticks. their products became mass-market plastic stuff soon thereafter. if you absolutely have no choice, you might consider the thrustmaster top gun or f22 joysticks but they aren't what this was.

By: krautland

krautland — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:47:54 -0800

this btw is the exact joystick I am talking about but I'm sure you want the PC version.

By: krautland

krautland — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:56:16 -0800

one more thing: there are a lot of old A-10's at Davis-Monthan AFB in arizona.

perhaps you could buy an original stick there or at a government auction? (used military equipment is sometimes aucitoned off at a fraction fo the cost)

By: Alterscape

Alterscape — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 19:17:27 -0800

Looks like the Thrustmaster FCS would be a nearly-accurate match. I'm surprised there aren't more used FCS on the market. I have a used Thrustmaster FLCS (F-16 style) that I'd be willing to part with if the look is close enough, but it uses the old large-style keyboard ports (rather than PS2) to send commands from the programmable buttons, and I'm not sure if the programming software will work with Windows XP.