Hands-On First Look: ThrustMaster HOTAS Cougar
by Len "Viking1" HjalmarsonArticle Type: Preview
Article Date: April 08, 2002
Product Info
Product Name: HOTAS CougarCategory: Controller
Developer: Thrustmaster
Release Date: Soon
Min. Spec: USB port, DirectX 8.0, Pentium (or compat.), Win98/2000/ME
Files & Links: Click Here
* * *
A Cut Above
Take the best flight sticks in the world and make them better. That was the challenge facing the ThrustMaster team as they considered how to bring the F22 Pro and TQS into the new millennium.While the F22/TQS combination has long been the HOTAS of choice, programming could be daunting and the spring resistance of the F22 made it tiring to use for extended periods of time. This was especially true with WWII combat aircraft where the fighting required constant maneuvering.
Stability was another serious issue. Going both USB and digital means perfect stability and also simplifies calibration. Many virtual pilots have used Bob Church’s digital conversion to bring their sticks up to date, but they are still stuck with the ancient game port and limited sensitivity.
The old design had a plastic axis that would wear away on the metal gimbal mount; the central axis is now made of metal. The HOTAS Cougar is USB ONLY, but allows the connection of gameport type rudder pedals directly to the stick. Drift and jitter are things of the past, and the programming interface has really come of age.
First Look
 |
| The HOTAS Cougar |
The box arrived on my doorstep, and in spite of the many warnings I was surprised by the weight. I removed the wrapping and sat both the units on my kitchen table for inspection.
Beautiful.
| I work as a Production Flight Test Engineer for Boeing on the 717 and have 20 yrs in the biz on lots of different jets. These things FEEL like aircraft parts. That may not be as important to some people as price, but it's priceless to me. It's hard to describe any better, but once you touch these things, and if you're trying to convince yourself you're in a real jet, nothing else comes close. —Scott Richardson |
The heft alone moves the pair out of the realm of PC toys and into the realm of military hardware and precision. No wonder the USAF has placed an order for the Cougar for their million dollar simulators.
The feel is fantastic. The finish is equally impressive. Metal to metal joints are flush, and there is no unpainted surface or paint chips, even on the metal buttons and knobs.
I took the pair downstairs to my home office for installation. I had to leave for a meeting and didn’t get back to them until the next morning. In the mornings my office is a cool 60 degrees on average. The Cougar would benefit by internal heating. My office is usually around 60 F when I enter in the morning and the metal sticks were icy to the touch. ThurstMaster please note: internal heating required.
What? Real pilots wear gloves? Oh...
I park my sticks on a specially designed shelf at the back of my huge, old oak desk. The shelf also holds my 19" display, some simulation manuals, a stack of backup CDs, hangar for my headphones, etc, etc.
Anyway, the point is that when not in use the COUGAR pair sit where my old F22 and TQS once sat, elevated about 8 inches off my desk and about 24 inches back. I used to be able to just grab the sticks and place them in front of me. Doing this now could give me permanent muscle damage.
These things are HEAVY. You will be surprised. Even the buttons and knobs are metal.
| While at E3 I got the chance to fly around in a pre alpha build of Lock On Modern Air Combat sitting inside an F-16 cockpit mockup. Included in this rig was the Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar. |
 |
| Close up of throttle |
| My first impression is one of quality workmanship and solid realism. The stick and throttle are HEAVY. They feel just like the real thing. Flying the A-10 in LOMAC was great fun and the stick and throttle provide superior precision and smoothness for your flying experience. Bottom line: This is a must have for any sim pilot out there. It will have NO competition once it hits the streets. I don’t think there is any question in my mind that I would pay almost anything they would ask within reason of course. I heard that it will retail for somewhere in the 300 $ range for stick and throttle. This is a no-brainer for me. —James “Hornit” Campisi Retired naval pilot. |
Installation
- Install software.
- Plug Cougar into a free USB port. Wait for detection. Move the sticks around to complete the first calibration. Next time you start calibration is AUTOMATIC.
The throttle and joystick collectively are a HOTAS. For those who don’t know, here is the idea in a nutshell.
In any flight sim, you could fly and control all the weapons, cockpit switches, etc., totally from the keyboard. But it is more realistic if we add a joystick and a throttle and pedals rudders, collectively called controllers.
Having this great gear is nice, but without any switches on board you still need to looking down to press keys on your keyboard. If you’ve ever done this while in the middle of a combat engagement, you realize that it is less than ideal. If you’re like me and like to fly in a room with dim lights, the keyboard is tough to spot anyway.
In the real military world they place control functions on the sticks. The Cougar does the same thing, and allows you to assign any keyboard function wherever you like. You never have to take your hands off your joystick and throttle, you never need to touch the keyboard, and you are able to concentrate completely on flying, tracking the bandit, weapons control, and more. This is the HOTAS concept, a trademark of Thrustmaster, allowing you to maintain your Hands On Throttle And Stick at all times.
 |
| Flying the Yak 9 over Berlin |
I adjusted an F22 digital file for IL-2 Sturmovik in about a half hour and launched into a mission. No problem getting off the ground in my MiG 3U…Hmm? Almost stalled out…the stick is much more responsive than the F22 Pro. Oh, oh…spin city. The sensitivity is probably twice the sensitivity of my F22 Pro.
You notice this also on buttons. Depress a switch—BANG! function recognized. View changes, everything is faster. Nice advantage, wouldn't you say?
The switches FEEL very different. More solid. Well naturally, the switches are better quality and the feel is transmitted through a solid metal button. Ditto with the movement of the throttle on its arc. Crossing over the détentes is similar to crossing a speed bump in my NISSAN: the solid CLUNK let’s you know if you were going too fast.
Now, this sensitivity issue. I asked Dr. James Hallows (one of the lead designers of the Cougar) about it as he was trying IL-2 Sturumovik for the first time himself this past week. He told me he didn’t notice any real difference going from his digital F22 Pro to the Cougar. Hmmm. I first tried adjusting the response curve in the provided CCP (Cougar control panel). No go.
The response zone can be trimmed, diced and sliced and made to look like my wife’s hair after her visit to the half mad hair dresser down the street, but the responsiveness of the stick isn’t really affected. The only significant option for my purpose was to choose a larger deadzone, but then the stick did not give me full deflection at the top end. This is now recognized as a need for improvement in the CCP and will likely be addressed by ThrustMaster.
 |
| Adjusting Axis response |
Instead I adjusted the response curve within IL-2 Sturmovik. This works fine, and gave me a stick which was quicker in response but similar in sensitivity. The difference is still pronounced enough that I am having to relearn to fly my favorite aircraft, but then everyone will be in this boat when the new patch is released anyway.
Of Mice and Thumbs
Now let me tell you about something COMPLETELY new on the Cougar: the microstick. If I were God I would generate instant microsticks on every HOTAS in the Universe. Yay…all would love me. This device is very cool. Mouse control at the twitch of the thumb.What’s the difference between this device and the old cursor control? Plenty.
The old eraser head cursor control on the TQS was really a four-way hat. It only tracked along four planes of motion. The new microstick is like a mini joystick. You can deflect it anywhere within the plane of motion and generate any position on your display. It is far more precise and much more powerful.
I use the microstick for internal view panning, and also for external view panning. But you can also program it to slice, dice and anything else you can think of. (I read somewhere that Adolf Galland used his as a cigar lighter, but don’t quote me).
The response curve of the microstick can be adjusted, just as any axis can be on the Cougar. It can be used as a digital or analog device, and it can be changed between the two on the fly.
Used as a standard mouse, it works perfectly for view panning in the cockpit. I left the default sensitivity alone. It’s great not to have to reach for my mouse if I have an inclination to pan the view. If you have been wanting the Track IR but have to choose between the Cougar and the Track IR, this is the next best thing. Naturally, it also has a click function when depressed, which you can use as a mouse click.
While I was mucking in the IL-2 Sturmovik control settings, I configured my ANT wheel for trim. This allows me to instantly trim my aircraft elevator by simply turning the wheel slightly. I find this axis too sensitive also, but the trim control is going to be more fine in the next patch so I am waiting to see what it will be like before I make any adjustments.
After talking to Dr. Hallows about the throttle axis I tried a number of experiments. I contacted Olivier Beaumont, one of the Cougar beta testers, for some advice on throttle axis programming.
As with anything on the Cougar, you can plug and fly, or plug and play with the settings. The throttle works just fine in IL-2 Sturmovik without any tweaking. But what if you want to engage WEP when you reach the top of the arc? Or what if you want to drop one notch of flaps whenever the throttle passes the 25 percent mark on the low end?
Now, if only I could engage the cloaking device at 100 percent power ;)
 |
| Cougar handles |
Incidentally, for those who really don’t like using the mouse as an aiming device while flying in the gunner position in the Sturmovik, with the Cougar, you can aim with your joystick.
The Cougar allows you to swap any axis on the fly. So, let’s say you want the mouse axis to be the joystick, and the joystick to become the mouse. No problem. You can program this as a simple button function, or you can program it to work this way when you move the dogfight switch to a new position.
But what if you want to use your pedals as toe brakes in Flight Simulator 2002?
Using the /I /O modifier in the configuration file, the user holds in the S4 lever on the front of the stick, which is programmed to disable the analog output from the rudder axis. The pedals then send a digital signal while the S4 lever is held in.
So I have flown many hours with the Cougar in IL-2 Sturmovik, both online and offline. It was time to give it a try in some other simulations. I fired up WarBirds III (WBIII) and went online for trials.
Not having flown WBIII for some months, it wasn’t long until I was floating to earth in my chute. New strategy needed: I warmed up a B-24 and climbed up to 15,000 feet.
Bombing and flying as gunner reminded me how much I used to enjoy this simulation, and how much I’m looking forward to Combat Flight Simulator 3 and some bombers becoming available in IL-2 Sturmovik.
I used FOXY, Dr. Hallow's programming interface, to load up the default file provided for WarBirds, not ideal since it places important functions where I am not used to them, but okay for a start. The Cougar performed perfectly.
NEXT: Using the Cougar in Programmed Mode
Resources
Articles:- 2002/04/08: Preview: HOTAS Cougar
- 2002/04/25: How-To: Creating Custom Configs, Part 1
- 2002/05/01: How-To: Creating Custom Configs, Part 2
Related COMBATSIM Resources:
Files:
Official Sites:
Community Sites:
Printer Friendly