...to chew bubblegum and use my new HOTAS, and I'm all out of money to buy any type of gum with.

ooo lights!

And is that a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate I spot there as well? Then that's another peripheral we have in common. I too recall the complete absence of gum-buying money, but I assure you, you won't regret it. Congrats buddy!

Eh, it's the shell of a Razer keyboard. I've screwed with the switches, repainted the backplate inside and changed out about 75 of the LEDs so far (was green when I got it), and changed it to a Finnish layout. Build quality-wise it's like the Saitek of keyboards. Gonna replace it with a customed-up WASD v2 sooner or later.

Been flying on this thing for a couple hours. The strength of the spring is HEAVY compared to an X-52. But, if you can learn to fly well with a shitty HOTAS... after a couple hours adjusting and getting the idea that you really need to put good pressure on it, I can ride the peak performance tone in the A-10 all day. Couple minor gripes here and there, but I'm not upset because I knew about them beforehand.

Treated yourself to a birthday present? LOL!

All those hats; so cool! Wouldn't have to worry about shift keys for managing the Shkval, look-around and cockpit camera position on one measly hat in the SU-25T, at the least. Very nice!

All I got myself recently was a Logitech gaming mouse, so that I could use it as an independent, complete control unit for the Shkval. It is actually an improvement.

Will DCS recognize 2 'mouses' (mice?) or did you have to do some work-around?

Wow, that's an idea. I just use the extra buttons on the mouse to enable a "switch" key which shifts control to the Shkval, and the other buttons for zoom and target lock, while in the same shifted mode. For look around I still use the stick's hat. Can it be done?

As far as I knew, two mice are recognized as independent hardware, but are automatically treated as the same mouse in Windows. There might be some old fashioned, manual DMA/IRQ setting way of getting around this, I don't know. I have become very rusty on that front since Win XP, LOL!

Some evidence of arctic enjoying his new acquisition.

Video here.

A session full of shenanigans with various aircraft - never had so many missiles fired at me before, it was a mega-spoofing-marathon at one point that used up all my fuel and chaff in the F-15 in the process! Also got to the bottom of some issues I was having with the F-99th skin packs. Thanks for that assistance!

You left out the "smacking into buildings" and "MANPAD food" parts I noticed.

Good grief, yes. Tuapse grew a forest of IR SAM smoke trails as soon as you flew over it, never seen anything like it. Tracer is being unusually sadistic with that scenario.

Love the Video guys!!

Arctic,
how do I make my Plane go upside down and what not? I would also like to learn the "barrel roll"!I did try it for hours last week by slamming my stick forward hard but I always crash..maybe some lessons you and I. I do pay for your time, In Tortinos pizza rolls or pep hot pockets, I'll leave it up to you on the picking of these fine delicacy's.

your pal, Jamal

Ya, I think there is a distinct possibility that we like it, LOL!

BTW, forgot to publish this rather awesome screenie of Arctic doing a low pass from the same night as the video. Enjoy!