A realistic A-10 joystick?

September 30, 2006 3:04 PM

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

For a flight simulator. Can anyone help him out?

posted by muddgirl to Technology (5 answers total)

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.
posted by paulsc at 3:20 PM on September 30, 2006

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.
posted by krautland at 3:46 PM on September 30, 2006

this btw is the exact joystick I am talking about but I'm sure you want the PC version.
posted by krautland at 3:47 PM on September 30, 2006

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)
posted by krautland at 3:56 PM on September 30, 2006

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.
posted by Alterscape at 7:17 PM on September 30, 2006