Thrustmaster Viper TQS Mission Pack for PC, Metal Throttle Quadrant System, Throttle and Control Panel Included, Hall Effect Precision, 64 Action Buttons, 6 Axes, Licensed by the U.S. Air Force

The Viper Mission is what a lot of people have been waiting for. It arrived and I don't think that the unit is really up to the price tag. Most of the unit is built solidly out of metal so it has a great feel about it. As others have said it is let down by a plastic landing gear stick that you have to lift (which is good) to make the switch work. It just doesn't feel right. The other switches are very good and can become very useful, not just flying sims but other sims such as space sims. The rotary encoder switch with push button for example. With the game controller it is easy to see each button and axis working. Unfortunately the unit I had showed that the VB1 axis (slider) was not working correctly so this unit was returned. Here the advice is try all of the switches, axis and buttons using the game controller and make sure they all work correctly. Having said this, all the LEDs are programmable either by TARGET GUI or TARGET Script which you download. I prefer the script as a C programmer. With this I believe no other throttle or joystick manufacturer gives you so much control over all of the switches, buttons or axis. This is a big YES for Thrustmaster. TARGET GUI and TARGET Script especially is the things that keep me with Thrustmaster. This is because you can get those LEDs to flash when you want, You can get the switches and buttons to Double up the jobs they do. You can get the coloured LEDs to shine (The wheel LEDs have Off, green, red, yellow, blue, cyan, magenta and white colours). Most have green, red or off. So overall the unit is very good, in fact excellent quality except for the one landing gear switch as mentioned. Its just one switch! The price I think is a bit high for one part of the sim because you will still need a joystick. As has been said the Thrustmaster Warthog throttle and Joystick is a good deal which is what I use at the moment but the viper mission is a very good implication of the f16 throttle and I think better than the competition.

The quality and the feel of the actual throttle itself is great. The switch panel however, doesn't feel as robust as it's warthog brother and I have my doubts as to how long it will last.Then my major gripe is that the lights are USELESS! I know how to use T.A.R.G.E.T and I know I can make the lights turn on when I press a button etc, however, what use is this?There needs to be a way to make the lights interact with other software!! Honeycomb and other manufacturers can manage this, so why can't Thrustmaster.Having all the LED's able to interact with DCS (vis DCSBIOS) and with Flight Simulator is what is needed.About time an app or an API was released by Thrustmaster to enable this. Their advertising eludes to the lights working in sims but they do not.For the price of this item, I expected more!When something is done by TM to address this gaping hole, I'll change my review to suit.

The HOTAS grip is nice, however the switch box is lacking the feeling of quality. The current software doesn’t appear to support the gear lights etc. The gear leaver itself is made of cheap grey plastic. The intermittent USB connection due to the cheap connector summed up the unit.If the Winwing unit was more readerly available I would purchase that. As it is I’m thinking about just purchasing the TM HOTAS grip and making a button box.