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Well, after many years of using low/mid-tier HOTAS, from the original TM stick through the FLCS/TQS, Cougar, G940 FFB, and now X56, I've finally ordered my first mid/high-tier. With the arrival of the Hornet grip for the Warthog I'd considered that one, but supply issues have made them impossible to find and their prices have skyrocketed.
My Logi/Saitek rudder pedals are fine for now, I can worry about them later.

That left the ones I've never bought from before, VKB, Virpil, and Winwing. The Winwing Super Libra/Taurus setup was almost $1k so that was out, but Virpil and VKB all seemed to have their plusses and minuses that left me not seeing a clear winner. Functionality vs ergonomics vs price vs ease of setup etc etc etc.

Then last week I saw a solution--Winwing released a NEW HOTAS--the Orion. For a mere $500 (intro price, will climb to $650 later) it's more Warthog-sized and actually has its mounting holes in the same spot so people who had a mounted WH could do a direct swap. It's a pretty good F/A-18 replica with a simplified (smaller box) throttle layout compared to Taurus. Designed for desk use and not extended desk mounts. https://wwsimstore.com/p/324.html

Shipping was $80, of course, so the total was still close to $600, but it was in stock without shortages inflation and in fact they've already shipped just 8 hours after order placement. I'm not giving up the X56 yet as this one seems like it might not be the best for helos, but I hope that it will.

Very impressive with lots of bells and whistles! Congrats man. I hope it gives you years and years of simming joy. I'm definitely a VKB convert, love my gunfighter III! Although I don't think I'll be using VKB for rudder pedals, unfortunately. No toe brakes it seems. Still waiting on their damn throttle to be released. But I'm really liking my TWCS. I might eventually swap out the dampening grease for something a little more responsive, but it handles well enough. Just a little more challenging on landing. I think if I fine tune my inputs on it, it'll be fine though. But I digress. You'll have to let us know how you find WinWing in terms of setup, durability, reliability, etc. Give us a review at the 6 month and 1 year mark, will ya?

I hope since it was shipped FedEx that means air and not sea so it gets here before that 6 month mark...

Oh I should think it's getting shipped by air. Waiting 6 months would be ridiculous, no?

congrats! I am sure we all would be interested in feedback on this once you have had it for a week or so.

i also am pretty sure it would be shipping by air.

Well...in the world of "huh?"

I got 3 of the boxes today. But there are 4. So while I have the stick base and grip and throttle base, the throttle grip is for some reason in Indiana as of yesterday. So 3 of them arrived within 3 days, but #4 is scheduled for Thursday?

Well I can assemble the stick and start that process of getting it ready anyway...

My only guess would be is the throttle grip was on back order so it got shipped separately from the rest. Either way, they should have just waited and shipped out everything in one box.

A few things to keep in mind:
After plugging it in for the first time and starting the firmware update, stick or throttle may no longer be detectable. If that happens, start plugging them into different USB ports until they are detected and complete the process.
The simapp pro software overwrites your main export.lua and puts its own export lines at the top. In addition the app "calls home" to China to get updates, etc...
In addition if there is new firmware it will download and force you to go through the update.
I only use the app for calibration and diagnostics and disabled the app's internet access to avoid the issue with forced firmware updates.

Thanks for the notes.
I have DL'd simapp but haven't installed it yet.