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Fingers crossed

I got a call today from the shop out at Harvey to let me know that work is starting on my plane. If I understood correctly, the engine mount has already been removed and sent off for refurbishment. They've started on the annual inspection while they wait for the mount to return. Once it's back, they'll re-assemble everything, inspect the engine to finish the annual, and then it should be ready to fly again.

Assuming nothing is found in the annual that requires major work, it's possible that it'll all be done within a couple of weeks. Alex said they still have to inspect the engine, even though it's been freshly overhauled, Presumably it's part of the required procedure, and must be done regardless. It's probably for the best; if nothing else it'll make absolutely sure that it's in good shape and runs well.

In the meantime, I did purchase the Turtle Beach Velocity One yoke. It's mainly targeted at Xbox owners, but it works with a PC as well. It definitely makes a difference when virtually flying airplanes that have yokes instead of joysticks. I still use the Thrustmaster rudder pedals. I had an issue with the "rudder" being centered but was able to figure it out. It had been working fine for some time but I noticed after I started using the new yoke controller that the rudder's "center" was actually slightly to the left. I don't know if it had always been that way but I don't think so. Regardless, the solution was to install the latest driver from Thrustmaster. The rudder pedals work without it, but the driver that is designed specifically for it appears to self-calibrate correctly. It's now working perfectly.

Now that I have this yoke, I actually put the Thrustmaster HOTAS back in its box. If I fly an airplane that uses a joystick, I either just use the yoke, or I plug in an older Saitek Cyborg EVO joystick I've had for many years. It's not as nice as the Thrustmaster, and the throttle is a lever on the base of the joystick instead of a separate unit, but it works pretty well. It has enough buttons on it that pretty much everything I had mapped to a button on the Thrustmaster is also mapped to a button on the Saitek. It also takes up a lot less desk space.

There is an issue I've found with the yoke, however. Periodically, everything about the yoke except pitch control stops working. Turning it does nothing, as does pressing any button. The throttle quadrant continues to work fine, but it's actually a separate controller that is connected to the yoke with a cable. I could connect it directly to the computer if I wanted to. After about 10 to 20 seconds everything starts working again. Sometimes it goes a long time without doing this, other times only a few minutes.

I've found reports of others having this problem and it appears to be an issue with the latest firmware for the controller. It's a pretty sophisticated bit of tech, and basically has a small computer in it. It has a small screen with control buttons that can be used to change some settings, switch between a couple of different profiles, and so on. There doesn't appear to be an easy way to revert to an earlier firmware version so I guess I'll have to live with it until they release a firmware update that fixes this.

Hopefully it won't be the case much longer that I'll be limited to virtual flying. I'm really looking forward to getting my plane back in the air and I really hope I can get it well broken in before the weather makes it difficult.

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