Oh noooo! My Thrustmaster Cougar is history!

[brando]

Originally Posted by Thunderbolt56

I've heard so many times about "in real life, southpaw's conform or wash out" from true pilots and all the wannabes on game/sim forums that my knee-jerk reaction is just that (i.e. sometimes not well-thought out).

I fly sims for the vicarious experiences and love of aviation. I do it for fun...that's all. I've had a Cougar and a right-handed Fighterstick (to name a few) and did just fine (relatively speaking). But the fun-factor rose exponentially when I got custom controllers that fit me instead of me fitting them.

I kept quiet because I get angered by this assumption that we are all supposed to conform. I spent my early years at an exclusive & expensive preparatory school run by French Catholics.
I was born a 'southpaw', and I can still recall the indignity of having my left hand tied to my chair to force me into the 'correct way' of writing. (Protests were quelled by a sharp slap or two!) Psychological studies have since proved that this kind of coercion is damaging to a person's intellect, but I was under the influence of a group who really believed that left-handedness was a sign of "the Devil's work"!

It's ironic then, that I lost my right arm and found myself back as I started out. Oddly enough, when I recommenced writing, I found my handwriting was bolder, clearer and more legible than it had ever been.

I don't much care if people get a thrill out of being "fully real" in their approach to this game. That's fine - but I object to all this bollocks about using the "correct" hand. To me, this point is utterly pretentious and unworthy.
This is a game. Played on a PC, ffs, and all the Tarmac Ace, hydraulic feedback, simpits and UDP won't make it anything more than that. If the manufacturers of these toy joysticks can't be bothered to make a LH option that's their business. If they use the excuse that it's more "real" then I just laugh at their pretension and give thanks that there is a conversion kit available for CH flight-gear.

>rant over<



Brando