F16SGRH feedback, I am disappointed.

[neok23]

Hey Guys,
I received my FSSB R3L MKII ULTRA + F16SRGH v2 early last week. I’m coming from an FSSB R3 and have been using it with my Warthog Grip since 2015.

I tested out the new Kit in DCS over the last days and the MKII is phenomenal. The F16SGRH on the other hand is quite disappointing. My main gripe with it are all the hats and dual stage trigger.
468€ (that’s with VAT) is a very premium price, and I was expecting premium switches and hats. All the 5 way hats feel fragile, flimsy have no travel and require very little force to actuate.
Especially the buttons that are just push buttons on the real Grip. I keep actuating the wrong input all the time, because there is no force difference between the push-down and hat directions. This is possible as WinWing gets this right.
The hat tops are very light and rotate slightly on top of the 5 way hat spoke. They rattle and feel cheep.
The trigger feels the same way. It’s very light and feels hollow, while scraping on the inner housing wall. The second detent actuation is too far back in the pull and actuates to late with a short and almost unnoticeable click.
There is also a very sharp detail on the underside of the trigger housing that eats into my middle finger, which is quite unpleasant.

At the price I expected a lot more
The Thrustmaster Wartog hats feel much much much better, and I think it’s important since this is what we are using to interface with the sim.

Now my question is, is it possible to replace the hats with higher quality ones?

[Dennis_J]

Dude, they do have better quality switches but those are way more expensive. Check the link below.
https://realsimulator.com/f16sgrh-pro/

[neok23]

Hey Dennis,
yeah I know, but I'm not talking about the 6000Euro Grip, which is in a whole other category outside of most consumers budgets.

[AstroNomad]

I agree with some of these criticisms, and I have the new Anti-Slip version. I expected best craftmanship on the commercial market, and the feeling is not necessarily like that, more like: win-some, lose-some.

However some of this criticism is subjective: while I would like better hats, I think that could mostly be solved with replacing their caps in my case. So I do not agree they are too light to press on the touch, in fact I think the pinky lever switch is a bit harder than I would like. Likewise, I do not agree the trigger is too light, I might even try to slightly reduce the spring tension if it is possible to replace it from above.

I strongly agree with you regarding the second stage trigger, it is far far too deep, I do not know what they were thinking. In my normal grip position I cannot even squeeze it in due to index finger position, so I have to change grip completely to get it all the way in.

I also strongly agree with your opinion of the hats that used to be push buttons in the original stick (the red one and the white one): because they remain of a completely round shape, this shape introduces uncertainty over whether you are pressing directly up-down or left-right. It does not feel right, and they should provide alternative caps so that we can tell direction by the shape of the actuation point, as is the case in all the other 5-way hats they have. And at this price point, I do not think that would have been unreasonable, even if it is of the 3D printed quality like the replacement Castle Cup.