+1 :)

Thanks for the tip, great price!!

Joe, (my given name also) thanks for responding! My comments were written fairly quickly with a little frustration. That frustration was with myself for not realizing the center detent existed in the video, which I should have clearly picked up on. I apologize for sounding a bit harsh toward the SIMHQ reviews and admit it was my translation of them that was the main source of error. On the other hand - if I can "read incorrectly" so can others.

I wrote this post with only one thing in mind - to inform the few people who have high end mod-Cougars, to think about the items I described before rushing out and investing in a Warthog. I sought to amplify previews and reviews - aiming more at these individual propeller and gun applications like Il2, SOW, ROF - etc...

In fact, I realized these features more than a week ago - but at the time thought I'd wait until I had give the Warthog a more thorough trail. As I said in my post - my comments should be construed as preliminary only. I don't think I would have been so quick to grab my Warthog, if I would have re-read all the previews and reviews more thoroughly with a more critical mind.

With that said, I know that I won't have the complete picture for myself until I've flown with the stick for many hours. As you said, it's a matter of personal preference. I can find the center of my U2Nxt Cougar easily, though maybe I have too many hours with it.

Since you are seeing this thread - could you answer a question?

Do you fly propeller sims or jet sims mainly? Or would you say you fly them all equally?

BTW, as I said - I'm keeping my Warthog. There are many great features it has - and I suspect I can change what I don't like. The single spring provides great possibilities and I can figure out a way to remove the detent if I need to.

S!

Gunny

Gunny,

First off... Thank you for the insight and review. This is very helpful. Having talked with several folks that have modded Cougars the Evenstrain and Ian's design are very similar in feel. In fact my Evenstrain is so good it often shows other flaws in the original Cougar design. I too have some crazy number of hours with my Cougar and know exactly what you're talking about in terms of resistance and a centering detent. I don't miss that feel though I still use the rubber boot. I think I got used to it and kept it that way.

Moving forward I really am on the fence about the Warthog. I fly a variety of sims but mostly IL2 and I enjoy my rotories for obvious reasons.

I may sit on this one a while and let the first wave of Warthogs and wait for all it's problems to come out before taking the plunge. What's pretty sad is I have a brand new Cougar sitting in the box as a back up. If anything goes wrong I'm pretty well set for parts and such.

Again thank you for the write up. It was very helpful.

Stubes

lol

One of the amazing subtleties of the "Cougar World" is the Evenstrain mod. I studied this one and was very close to ordering in when production terminated. As I remember it had the lightest stick forces of all the mods at the time. After it was discontinued - Ian finished the U2nxt, and I was able to get serial #37.

If the Evenstrain has lighter tension than the U2Nxt, then that would allow you to keep the boot, and have about the same tension as I do now. Wish I had a strain gauge to test...

LOL, that was my plan - until I got overexcited. I'll certainly let you know what I find, later.

Great to see you Stubes!

All the best,

Gunny

probably it was an error?? till this morning was £199.99, but right now is £299.99!!! had a good deal who bought it for £199.99....

S!

Yep, paid over 400€ for mine..but hobbies are not free at times ;)

Last time I checked you could get it on play.com for 199

Wow, bargain. I don't exactly need one, and couldn't afford one if I did, but if I'd have seen those mistakes I'd have bought. Price comparison sites show that amazon and play have it at £199, but when you go to their sites it's back up to £299 on both.

My order has status dispatched and got a tracking number from DHL, £199 with free shipping to Sweden, thats really great price.. :D