DCS: F-14B Tomcat | Former F-14 RIO's In Depth HOTAS Setup Guide!

I know you guys have been asking for this video for awhile now but I figured there would be no better person to talk to you about the RIO Seat controls than an actual former RIO and Heatblur SME. John personally uses a Thrustmaster T1600M But all of the controls that he goes over can be bound to any HOTAS solution on the market!
Huge thank you to John for showing us how he setup his HOTAS for use in the RIO Seat of the DCS: F-14B Tomcat from HeatBlur and another big thank you to Straywolf for helping to set everything up!
Here is a link to my Patreon Page every bit of support helps make awesome DCS videos possible! / spudknocker
If you want to contact me with feedback on videos or want to collaborate feel free to join my personal discord here: / discord

[@JohnSmith-xj2bd]

Hey folks, I hope you enjoy this introduction to my controller setup for the RIO cockpit and find it useful. Although getting back into the Heatblur Tomcat cockpit was a serious trip down memory lane for me, I can well imagine that the RIO cockpit is a bit strange for most when compared to other DCS modules. So I wanted to at least give folks a starting point to consider while creating their own controller bindings and help everyone get up to speed quicker. Lastly, if you have any particular topics you'd like me and Spudknocker to cover in the future, be sure to let us know if the comments. Good hunting.

[@psybain]

Very useful, thanks! I look forward to to seeing how you wind up configuring your throttle for the LANTIRN pod. Which throttle are you using out of curiosity?

[@oldfrend]

john smith. was your pilot's callsign 'Pocahontas'?

[@eranmalloch]

Thanks John. Very cool have a real F14 RIO around to learn us beginners ;-) I look forward to more videos from you.

[@Spudknocker]

psybain he is using a thrustmaster T1600M for this video.

[@lilletrille8998]

Thank you Sir for this video. As I have been spending most of my time in the backseat of the F-14, flying with my friends I look forward to watching how you would use the different radar modes through an intercept. I have found that I am not using TWS as much as I would like, rather locking onto targets in STT and thus alerting them - and making it much more difficult to surprise them with an AIM-54 shot...I usually will go Pulse search or Pulse Doppler search and then lock them...not sure if this is the right way...

[@SolidMikeP]

I HAVENT SEEN ANYONE who edits DCS video have a split scree, showing interior and ALWAYS showing exterior, its great to look at and always interesting.

[@petebonnagio4714]

Nice Job guys!! As a former Tomcat Maintainer (Grim Reaper, Red Ripper x2, Black Ace and Black Knight)I have to say I am really enjoying this perspective. I learned things in this video that all those years of running the BITs never showed me. The attention to detail with this sim is astounding and to get veteran aircrew to do the tutorials is fantastic!! There was a time I got to play with the sims at NAS Oceana back in the day but that never made my heart pound like my first DCS trap did. "Ripper 100 in and up, Turnaround Shooter 3A1 and give me a grape nut there CAG" Keep it coming gentlemen!!

[@Spudknocker]

Pete Bonnagio I’m glad you liked it dude! She really is a remarkable bird that’s for sure!

[@Wolfkin18]

Thank you John and thank you Spudknocker! I've heard John before in the interview with the HB gents, and was in AWE of his experience. Thank you for sharing a bit with us layman. And thank you Spudknocker for bringing him to us!

[@Spudknocker]

Pedro Portela no problem dude! I hope this helps you out with your backseat control scheme

[@EmpressLP041]

Huge help - thank you so much! I spend a lot of time now in the RIO seat with a good friend, but learning from scratch started the questions with 'what do I care about most with RIO / HOTAS binds'. Great video! ♥

[@danvercillo]

Thank you Spud for bringing us John and his knowledge. Really fascinating and humbling learning from living legends.

[@Spudknocker]

Dan Vercillo that is for sure! Always wonderful to hear from the guys who really flew the machines we love

[@Spudknocker]

No better place to get your RIO Hotas setup than from a REAL former F-14 Tomcat RIO! Huge thanks to John for participating in this video! Here is a link to my Patreon Page every bit of support helps make awesome DCS videos possible! www.patreon.com/Spudknocker

[@nicksmith2361]

Thanks to you and John for this great video, keep up the good work Spud, without people like you DCS would be an even steeper learning curve for veteran flight sim pilots like myself 😀

[@Tertius_Oculus]

Nice. thx Spudknocker and John! Great content.

[@SUP_Bigans]

Very interesting learning from a real RIO's experience!!! Thank you so much!!!👏👏👏👏👏

[@specter929]

Excellent Instruction by John, many thanks, it would be good to maybe do a video on the Lantirn control and how you would normally use that

[@torbenschrder6700]

Excellent content as always, thanks John and Spudknocker.

[@Spudknocker]

Torben Schrøder no worries man I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@gholamrezamehrdad8410]

Thanks for your marvelous tutorial ,clear and much more understandable as the others on you tube,keep with your very good job.

[@Spudknocker]

gholamreza mehrdad thank you for the support I am glad it helped you out!

[@bretttoddable]

Superb! Thankyou guys.

[@ontherampflightsim]

Glad he touched on having a LANTIRN in use. I have the X-55 and have dedicated most of the HAT/DPAD and buttons on the stick for LANTIRN. Throttle axes for the HCU. Kinda weird, but it works. Great info, thanks.

[@Spudknocker]

On The Ramp Flightsim if you’re willing to try changing that up I can’t recommend enough the idea of having stuff on the left side of the cockpit on the throttle and the right side on the stick

[@ontherampflightsim]

@@Spudknocker Logically that's what I want to do at first. I was using the manual diag. and since the LANTIRN control is a stick, I just kept it corresponding to the identical buttons, but yeah I'll be changing that. :D

[@wilbuzllf5057]

Will reply to John as well and I must say that this is beyond superb! Thank you so much for this, amazing to listen to someone who knows 100% what he's talking about and when/how different things were used! Would be great if you could get John back in the pit for some tactics in combat as well :-D /Wilbuz

[@davehaag8175]

Awesome as always!!!

[@AntoineThisdale]

This is great content guys!

[@Air-Striegler]

Amazing stuff. Great work!

[@sbryans123]

Should have linked the download for the T1600M profile. Would be nice to check that out.

[@senator1295]

thanks for the hard work and incredible insight

[@exiletsj2570]

Great stuff spud. Thanks rio!

[@Spudknocker]

I am glad you liked it!

[@tastler]

Thank you very much for doing this!

[@ArktikosAdventures]

Great stuff. Thanks guys!

[@Spudknocker]

Glad you liked it and I hope it helps you out!

[@valrond]

Great video, thanks!

[@bikeguy3034]

You can just set a modifier button on your stick to double up all your throttle buttons etc. Great video, cheers.

[@Spudknocker]

Bike Guy very true!

[@MongooseTacticool]

Something like a set of USB foot-switches would work for modifiers.

[@omfljvlions2011]

Thank you for this, really appreciate it.

[@Sinbad683]

Nice! this helps a lot!

[@Fyreswing]

This is fantastic

[@BlackAces1983]

Awesome!

[@Hellreign82]

You may be not saying it Spud, but I say it in my head every time regardless :) #AsAlways-Forever Great video, thanks to John for his time and Knowledge. Good stuff, always good to get real-world insight

[@Spudknocker]

#bringbackspud'sasalways! and thanks man!

[@pballplayu94]

hmmmmm thats interesting, my dad also was a rio in the early 80s in the red rippers; ill have to ask if he recognizes the callsign. my dads call sign was nature boy and also named john lmao

[@oldmanfunky4909]

Any chance this can be uploaded as a device profile and posted on the DCS World page? Or shared as a device profile here for those of us the the TM1600m hotas.

[@PapaSaubaer]

Good work, but for a "Depth HOTAS Setup Guide!" you forgot the LANTIRN and their hotas settings are very important... For more profile settings you can search the user files from digitalcombatsimulator. There u can find 2 profile settings for the RIO. Search: "F-14 Rio" - Hotas Warthog - T16000M Set

[@Spudknocker]

Combat Squirrels John the former RIO who helped make the video never flew in LANTIRN capable jets therefore we decided to revisit LANTIRN later on in a separate video.

[@maxwarrior3324]

I love my friends, but they don't play DCS. So they are not my friends any more