My Cockpit

719: My New Flight Illusion Trim Wheel

| Tom Tsui

The HW-GEN003 Trim Wheel from Flight Illusion in The Netherlands belongs to a new line of products.  My first reaction after unpacking it is:  It’s HUGE !

No kidding.  I was actually stunned a little by its “huge” size even though I was prepared to accept that it would be big after reading its physical dimensions before the purchase.GEN003_01_resize_resize

Pardon me if I sound a bit exaggerated.

But it was true at that moment because the contrast was so big that this relatively huge unit was packed in a relatively small package — which is about half the size of the box shipping the Flight Velocity Trim Wheel, which on the contrary is about half the size of the Flight Illusion trim.

Frankly, I have never seen any other trim wheel for simulation bigger than this one.
– Continue reading →

717: CPU Still Crucial in MSFS

| Tom Tsui

Regarding the Graphics Settings of my two computers in the last Post, some friends asked what the specifications of my two PCs are and questioned if it is justified to compare them side by side since there aren’t much too difference in the comparison chart shown in the post.

Yes, interestingly, except a few items I set higher than the other, most of the settings between the two PCs are identical, even their looks under my desk.
PC_Spec_01_resize Continue reading →

716: My Current MSFS Settings

| Tom Tsui

Perhaps you have encountered similar situations before:  the performance of the simulator deterioriates as time goes by.  In the end, you’ll have to tune it again.  I just did about a week ago.

Followings are what I set at present:

nVidia Drivers Reinstalled – As Clean
GeForce Experience – Removed
nVidia Settings Power Management Mode – Prefer Maximum Performance
Others – Default
Windows Settings Game Mode – ON
Xbox Game Bar & Captures – OFF
Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling – OFF
CPU Priority FlightSimulator.exe – High via Prio (Post 714)

And the Graphics Settings in MSFS for my two computers: Continue reading →

708: My Cockpit Rev #31 – ButtKicker Gamer 2

| Tom Tsui

On this rainy day, I finally got the ButtKicker for my sim cockpit.

I had been inclined to the wireless model in the first place.   But after comparing the two models and my environment, I decided to get the wired Gamer 2 in the end.ButtKickerProbably I won’t have time to install it until the weekend.  Moreover, Continue reading →

701: Flight Velocity Trim Wheel Pro Review

| Tom Tsui

If you have ever used any trim wheel circuited with an encoder before, you should have experienced that the last position remembered by it could be very annoying if you forget to set its position back to the center at the start of a flight.

TrimPro_01b_resizeSince I got the Cessna Trim Wheel from Saitek many years ago, I’ve been looking for a solution to this annoyance.   But search is futile.

So when I found out Flight Velocity was soon to release a new product called Trim Wheel Pro which would use new software last Decemeber, I was quite excited, hoping that it could be a remedy to my agony.

Unfortunately, after checking with the company, the new player is no exception.  The issue seems to be unsolvable. Continue reading →

700: My Cockpit Rev #30 – Trim Wheel Pro

| Tom Tsui

Yesterday, I got the Trim Wheel Pro from Flight Velocity, which I am planning to replace the Saitek Cessna Trim Wheel which has been in service for many years.TrimWheelPro_01S

A unique feature that distincts it from the Saitek one is an adjustable control knob on the unit, thru which users can vary and finetune the elevator trimming pitch during a flight.

After Logitech chopped the production of Saitek Cessna Trim Wheel since its acquisition, there aren’t similar trim wheels on the market one can find for a long time.

Is this Trim Wheel Pro a good replacement ?

How does it perform ?

Is the adjustable knob useful ? Continue reading →

669: My Cockpit Rev #29 – 11900K CPU

| Tom Tsui

I just replaced my few months old ROG MAXIMUS XII APEX motherboard and i9 10900K CPU with the new ROG Z590-E Gaming Wifi and i9 11900K CPU.  It was 11900Kunintentional and there’s a long story behind due to unrecoverable CTD from MSFS 2020 on the Apex system.

Anyway, I just want to say that Continue reading →

664: My Cockpit Rev #28 – RealSimGear

| Tom Tsui

I’ve been tied up with many things after the Chinese New Year.  As a result, there was not a single Post for nearly a month.   Fortunately, things are sorting out now and I hope to resume posting new stories as regular before.

Coming back to my home cockpit, I just received the GNS 430 and 530 from RealSimGear today after more than two months’ waiting.
Inevitably my radio cluster needs major revamp again.  I hope it won’t take me long to start working on it since the final appearance should look appealing.

Actually I’d been Continue reading →

657: My Cockpit Rev #27 – Glare Shield Light

| Tom Tsui

Just added an LED stripe to the glare shield in my cockpit.   Again, the LEDs were bought over six months ago and hadn’t been installed until yesterday…haha.

Instead of just turning on and off the glare shield light, I have added a turning knob type USB dim switch to control the brightness of it. Continue reading →