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Poll (kinda'). Your Top Discretes preferences for Stick Grip.

Freemasm

Freemasm

Well Known Member
Patron
Would probably be better as a Poll but I have no such privileges.

What are your top (three) preferred discretes to have on your stick grip and why?

TO/GA
CWS/AP disc
Com swap
Com step
ident
Smart Glide
LVL (maybe in the future)
etc.

Start and Flaps don't really qualify but it's an open forum. My apologies if this has been asked before. Could not find it and enhanced web searches target switch type.
 
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SMOKE ! That's all I have on my throttle,..but I have a very simple Comm,no A/P or any other goodies, so stick has electric trims, flaps and PTT.
 
"The stuff you need and not all the stuff you want..."

Throttle -
Smoke
TO/GA

Stick -
PTT
AP/CWS
Trim(s)

edit: Added "all" to the quote. You could add a switch for everything, but unless you are trained like an F-16 pilot, they'll cause more problems than solve.
 
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1) CWS/AP disc. used all the time
2) Ident used all the time
3) Start - added safety for a tail dragger (Use a start disconnect on the panel when not needed)

Favorite discrete used. (If you assume trim and flaps not a discrete.

Not sure when someone asks a direct question on a particular feature they get "don't need it". Not what they asked.
 
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Freemasm said:
Would probably be better as a Poll but I have no such privileges.

What are your top (three) preferred discretes to have on your throttle grip and why?

TO/GA
CWS/AP disc
Com swap
Com step
ident
Smart Glide
LVL (maybe in the future)
etc.

Start and Flaps don't really qualify but it's an open forum. My apologies if this has been asked before. Could not find it and enhanced web searches target switch type.
Click to expand...
there's another you should consider. a dedicated com 2 ptt. quite useful for formation flying where lead might want to have atc or airboss or something on one freq and keep the flight on another. regular ptt uses whatever your audio panel is set to, the com2 ptt always xmits on com2

I don't really have the ability to put anything on my throttle grip right now, but my to/ga is near as dammit. when I advance the throttle I can press it with my finger.
 
I have two airplanes with PTT on the throttle (as well as one the stick) and find that I never use them…honestly sort of forget they are there. The truth is that I am rarely gripping the throttle “grip” - I generally am hanging on to the lever itself, below the grip, so that my hand is anchored for fine movements. Even (or especially) in formation flying, I don’t use the grip much - the lever is more precise. Now I also often grip the stick below the actual “Grip” - but am more likely to use the grip during high-gain activities. And if the autopilot is flying, I just naturally tend towards the stick PTT when I need to communicate - probably just decades of habit.

Just personal experience - yours maybe be different.
 
This is what I did. The radio flip flop (abilty to swap Freqs between active and standby) was moved to the upper button. The bottom pinky button I am going to change to swapping between Comm1 and Comm 2 on my Garmin Audio panel since I have two radios. I just haven't done it yet.

Hope this helps.

BTW - the flap switch on the stick is my fav feature other than PTT and Trim.

EDIT to add: The AP disconnect/CWS button on the stick has "Saved" me a few times when the AP did something abruptly I didn't expect. I was nice to have it right there to click off quickly.
 

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Ray Allen old school G205
#1 PTT on front, #2/#3 Nose Up down trim, left button comm swap, right button AP/Dscnt - Kept stick long to see if I like it. Can always shorten.

Passenger PTT on Panel. Also have trim on a rocker and AP/dscnt on panel in case I decide to abandon stick buttons
 
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@Toobuilder Thanks for pointing out my case of the dumba$$, yet again. Was supposed to be stuck grip. Last thing I was working on was the throttle.

It’s been corrected. Sorry and thanks
 
Tosten Military. Crazy number of options and very comfortable. Pilot is below.
Hat center top
CWS top left
Flap up/dn top right
Flip/Flop mid right thumb
PTT trigger
Unused front recessed button

Funny, Dynon has so many ways to do things, I find myself pressing the flip/flop on the com panel. I do use the CWS often because it's convenient but sometimes I use the AP panel or the EFIS AP menu.
 
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Freemasm said:
Start and Flaps don't really qualify but it's an open forum.
Click to expand...
Why doesn’t Start qualify?
On the Rocket I love the ability to hold the stick all the way back and hit the start button on my stick grip. The left hand is free to manipulate the mixture and throttle.
As for the flaps: I must have at least FOUR on the stick: Flaps, Start, PTT, and Pitch trim.
FWIW, my stick also sports no. 1 radio flip-flop, comm swap, ident, and AP disconnect/CWS.
If I ever add smoke it will have to be on the throttle.
 
Ironflight said:
I have two airplanes with PTT on the throttle (as well as one the stick) and find that I never use them…honestly sort of forget they are there. The truth is that I am rarely gripping the throttle “grip” - I generally am hanging on to the lever itself, below the grip, so that my hand is anchored for fine movements. Even (or especially) in formation flying, I don’t use the grip much - the lever is more precise. Now I also often grip the stick below the actual “Grip” - but am more likely to use the grip during high-gain activities. And if the autopilot is flying, I just naturally tend towards the stick PTT when I need to communicate - probably just decades of habit.

Just personal experience - yours maybe be different.
Click to expand...
Having PTT on the throttle famously caused 5 USAF T-38s to follow their lead right into to the ground. In a practice flight of the Thunderbirds, the lead aircraft had a control malfunction where something (a wrench, IIRC) interfered with getting getting enough up-elevator to complete a loop. The lead pilot knew something was wrong when he missed the cross-check speed and altitude over the top of the loop. He moved his hand from the throttle and put both hands on the stick. As the maneuver continued, he pulled as hard as he could, bent some stuff, but could not finish the loop above the ground. Had the PTT been on the stick, he could have given a 'knock it off' call to the other five aircraft. But because the PTT was on the throttle, and he had committed both hands to pulling on the stick, he could not talk to them. They all followed the lead right into the ground.
 
andoman said:
Why doesn’t Start qualify?
On the Rocket I love the ability to hold the stick all the way back and hit the start button on my stick grip. The left hand is free to manipulate the mixture and throttle.
As for the flaps: I must have at least FOUR on the stick: Flaps, Start, PTT, and Pitch trim.
FWIW, my stick also sports no. 1 radio flip-flop, comm swap, ident, and AP disconnect/CWS.
If I ever add smoke it will have to be on the throttle.
Click to expand...

Closed a circuit isn’t really discrete I/O; though, the way flaps trim are controlled through other Garmin equipment (GAD) kinda is. Technical Semantics and sh!t; not important. PTT and trim and almost automatics. Was looking for the “second tier” options that people chose and why.

My flaps and start will be on grip or throttle or vice versa.

Thx.
 
andoman said:
Why doesn’t Start qualify?
On the Rocket I love the ability to hold the stick all the way back and hit the start button on my stick grip. The left hand is free to manipulate the mixture and throttle.
As for the flaps: I must have at least FOUR on the stick: Flaps, Start, PTT, and Pitch trim.
FWIW, my stick also sports no. 1 radio flip-flop, comm swap, ident, and AP disconnect/CWS.
If I ever add smoke it will have to be on the throttle.
Click to expand...
See post 6.
 
My setup was partially driven by 30+ years of flying military aircraft, so your mileage may vary.

Stick:
Trim
Autopilot/CWS
Comm Swap (1 / 2) for formation flying
Start

Throttle:
PTT
Smoke On/Off
 
Pilot side I have only PTT and AP disc/CWS. Passenger side only PTT.

Funny thing is when I'm flying I manage to push the wrong one more often than I care to admit.

But I keep on trying.
 
I’m (taking a break right now!) in the process of reworking my RV10 pilot side stick buttons after about 400h.

It used to have
PTT
Pitch trim
CWS/Disconnect
Ident
PTC for the GTN.

When I’ve finished it will have
PTT
Pitch and Roll trim
CWS/disconnect.

The PTC is ordinary so never gets used.

I think I’ve Idented twice in this plane.
It just dosent seem to get used much here. Maybe the airspace just isn’t that busy. Or ADSB. Dunno. YMMV.
Besides it’s right in the middle of the top row of the MFD anyway.

I stupidly put the roll trim on the sub panel because I never really used it on my 7. The 10 with the ER tanks I just have to fiddle with roll more. So back on the stick.
 

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RV-10

Infinity Stick:
Pitch / Roll TRIM
COM SWAP 1/2
PTT
TIMER (G3X TOUCH)
AP DISC / CWS
TRAFFIC ACKNOWLEDGE (Europe specific)

Throttle (planned, not yet installed)
TO/GA
 
On side by side I add a “PILOT/COPILOT” DPDT toggle switch on the panel. This selects who has Trim and Flap control. It does two things:
- Prevents a non-pilot in the copilot seat from messing with trim or putting flaps out at speed.
- Provides an installed backup incase the pilot stick switches fail.

The switch simply provides or does not provide the ground for the trim top hat and flap switches.

Side note. The first build had the start button on the stick for exactly two flights. Never again. If you must have it on the stick I recommend a “Starter Enable” toggle switch on the panel to prevent inadvertently engaging the starter after engine start.

Carl
 
This is a pic of the Pilot's stick in my RV-10, so left hand. It's kind of overkill as I don't use the pinky button comm flip-flop (just never got in the habit as I use the button on the radio itself) adn I no longer have a VP-200 so the thumb buttom is dead and I have nothing else for it to do but it's availble if soemthing crops up in the future. Everything else I'd do again exaclty as I have it laid out.


Stick (2).jpg
 
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