Hey guys,

Someone at Lockonfiles sent me here because of your knowledge of the HOTAS Cougar and mods of this stick. My problem is the following:

I've a now one year old Cougar with an FCC mod, done by Arend.
Since the mounting of the FCC mod (about half a year ago), I'm encountering a drift of the calibration centre of the x- and y-axis. This drift occurs in normally around 1-2 hours of use, and increases slowly. Arend told me to isolate the grounding wire to fix the problem, and it helped a bit - but the problem still exists, and he stopped answering sadly. Has anyone any idea what to do? This is really annoying, as I've to concentrate on keeping the plane straight only half an hour after take-off, not to think on launching any missiles.

I hope you can share some ideas with me. Thanks in advance,

Hog

//EDIT: And PS: Has anyone ever seen a throttle mod for the Cougar, modding it into a two-part throttle (like in the F-15)?

Maybe Teej can help (?), he's the only one here with an FCC mod for his Cougar. The rest of us have FSSB mods.

As far as throttle mods, there are some at Cubby's website, but none that would turn the TQS into a split throttle. That's a little too exsessive for a metal handle with the throttle arm to the side! I don't think you'd even want to attempt to change the TQS, because it wouldn't work with its grip designed for hands-on dogfighting in the Viper. The HOTAS Warthog by Thrustmaster, coming soon in 2010, will have a split throttle for twin engine operation.

In the mean time, you can up the FCC resistance in the Cougar Control Panel which should in itself decrease the affect that the drift has on the aircraft as well as increase the center deadzone a bit. It's only a band-aid fix but it may give you enough time between calibrations to fly a full mission.

Mhm, thanks first, I'm around 5 percent with my deadzone already. It's not so catastrophical, it's just nasty to constantly drag the stick slowly to one side. I think the problem is located somewhere in the bad isolation of the cables which connect the FCC base with the main PCB. Interference and such. Any Ideas?

I doubt that kind of drift is due to the cables, but a re-soldering of all the connections at the FCC side should clear that up.

If I were you, I'd check all mechanical mountings, if I remember correctly the FCC has some internal structure to it. Any slight movement in the top and bottom parts will be ten fold in the game. Same with you're mounting to the Cougar itself. I get some drift in my FSSB due to the flexible mounting, nothing I can do about that.

Maybe look for some standards of performance quoted by Arend. If the problem is a poorly mounted load cell (strain gage) there's really nothing you can do. Get another one from him...

Dunno if you're still reading this...somehow I never saw this thread until just now when I was doing a search on some FCC stuff.

I've had my FCC for around 4 years now and flown it through many many hours of F4AF as well as my time here with the VTB. I've never experienced a drift such as you describe so I'm not sure what to suggest.

I've had mine drift maybe twice in the years I've been using it, and in both cases it was a physical issue - one or two of the metal shafts that clamp the FCC to the top of the cougar base had loosened.

Teej