Spring Mod For TM Warthawg

[AG-51_Razor]

Have any of you Warthawg owners seen or tried this yet?? http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2665740&postcount=26

All I can say man is WOW!!!. It's like I can fly that damned Mi-8 around like I was in my S-64! I am not shitting you! It's that dramatic a difference. The pisser is, if you do this, you'll have to re-learn how to tank in an F-18   

[AG-51_Bulldog]

Man I can't believe how beefy of a spring that is.. Love how heavy duty that is... Same premise with the Rhino except our springs are a little easier to change out.. I fly choppers with the weakest spring as well.. Sometimes with no spring, but it is nice to have it at least recenter sometimes.

[AG-51_Razor]

I'm having a hell of a time getting back to where I can tank in the Hornet. I's like I'm starting all over again from scratch.

[AG-51_Cobraj]

It doesn't move to center removing that spring does it?

[AG-51_Razor]

It does but not very crisply. If you push it forward the CG of it will keep it forward but in any other direction it will return to center.

[AG-51_Bulldog]

He said at the end of that video that you could add little washers to the small springs to add a little more tension.

[AG-51_Glider]

You can also order stiffer springs to replace the small ones. Tune it to exactly how you like.

http://springs.mrspring.com/viewitems/compression-springs/compression-springs-3?&forward=1

[AG-51_Razor]

He said at the end of that video that you could add little washers to the small springs to add a little more tension.

Yeah, I was going to give that a try. If that doesn't work out, I may try to find some different springs from that site Glider posted. I am also going to look into another option, using an extension between the grip and base of the joystick. Having a longer stick with change the amount of throw for the stick and hopefully make it much more realistic. Here are a couple of sites that offer them:

https://sites.google.com/site/warthogextension/

http://warthog-extensions-by-sahaj.com/my-products/

[AG-51_Bulldog]

Too Cool!!! With that main spring in was the control pretty tight. Seemed like it would be with that car spring in there!!!

[AG-51_Razor]

Yes, it was fairly tight but I guess I just got used to it. Once I removed it and put those 4 little springs up on top, it now feels like I have a Jet Ranger cyclic in my hand. Skeetr will know exactly what I mean by that. So now, it feels completely natural hovering around in the Mi-8 but I am over controlling the crap out of the airplanes! I am sure that it is purely a matter of retraining myself regardless of which way I go. The first thing I will do is put a couple of washers under the plate to see if that changes the tension any. In the mean time, I have pulled the plug on a 10cm extension, which will be at my door in a week or two. I have a feeling that this will be the hot ticket! I'll be sure to keep y'all up to date. Of course, y'all should be able to tell just by flying along side of me while EDIT: TRYING to hit the tanker! LOL!

[AG-51_Bulldog]

On your planes maybe try upping the curve??? With the extension you may have to go back to a heavier spring, no???

[AG-51_Razor]

I don't think I'll need to put the heavy spring back in with this new extension. It's just right for helicopters now, and with the extension, the comtrol inputs will be much finer so the overcontrolling I am experiencing at the moment should be minimized quite a bit. I'll just have to wait and see.

[AG-51_Bulldog]

You keep going like this you will be in full pit before you know it!!!

[AG-51_Razor]

I thought I'd give y'all a little update on my Warthog spring mod. Well, after realizing that I was totally incompetent with it in airplanes after removing the spring, I began investigating the use of washers to tighten it up a little bit. I ended up using some fairly thin nuts which got the tension just right and I was able to plug into both types of tankers (Viking and IL-78) but also became painfully aware that the amount of throw - or movement - on the stick had been reduced a fair bit. So......I am back to normal now with the big spring in place and everything works now as it did before. I will go throught this whole cycle again when the 10cm stick extension arrives next week. I'll let you know how that works out for me.

In the mean time, I can't really recommend this spring mod to any of our Warthog users. That is, unless you plane to fly helicopters exclusively. I am hopeful that, by getting some additional leverage on the stick with this extension, the big spring will become less obtrusive in the helos and actually make the airplanes feel just right. Stay tuned. 

[AG-51_Glider]

Razor- did you get your extension yet and if so what do you think of it? I am thinking of doing the same with the longest one they have and makeing my stick a center stick.