Dear all,

My ramp start sequences are as follows(base on my vaguely AF experience):

==========================
1.turn on Battery check.
2.turn on main power.
3.JFS start 2.
4.wait till RPM goes to 20%.
5.full throttle.
6.idle detent.
7.throttle back to zero.

After that RPM goes smoothly to 70%.
============================


I know the sequences are a little bit different from the manual and my questions are:

1.Is this correct?( I mean, this won't affect any following settings, right?)
2.What is idle detent for anyway?
3.The "throttle to 100% - idle detent - throttle to 0%" sequence is quite odd, any reason why it is designed?

In AF and older SP releases I did it almost the same as you but instead of going to 100% I pushed it to 50%.

I belive in real F-16 the idle detent is a point where if you move your throttle past it (forward) you wont be able to move it back below it without the use of that "pinky trigger". It's a safety mechanism that prevents the pilot to basically switching his engine off (going below the idle detent) during highly stressful situations in the cockpit (i.e. during dogfight etc.).

So the move of the throttle to 50% (or above), egaging the detent and than going back to 0% only simulate the move above the detent and still gives you full scale of the throttle to work with in virtual Falcon.

It represents the physical process of moving the throttle past out of the off position into idle. Video of a detailed sim cockpit control represents the real one quite well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_7juPxOXus.

In Falcon they chose to make this transition from off to idle or idle to off a button press but it also considers the axis value when deciding what to do. To go from idle to off the axis must be quite near 0 for the idle detent key to switch the throttle off. If you're at a high axis setting the idle button won't switch to off. Similarly to go from off to idle it requires axis >X%. If your axis is near zero and you press the button it won't transition out of the off position.

What is X%? It's maybe 40-50-60ish percent. You don't need full but being 1% less than the threshold might result in not starting the airplane so the procedure you read just says "use 100%" which is a safe bet.

Since we're at it, is there a way to change that X%? I'd love to be able to just move my warthog past the detect and be done with it.

Right click set AB where you want Idle stop to be in the UI/Setup/Controllers. Red line will mark your idle detent.

Thank you all,


to Schnidrman,
I set the red line at the very bottom, but I still have to go through sequence 5~7 mentioned in my post.
Is something missing?

to Frederf,
Sequence(5~7) is merely a imitation of Throttle movement (either from off to idle or idle to off) with no apparent reasons.
Furthermore, this may not work on a real F-16.

Am I right?

Try setting it higher. Just keep in mind that going below the red line in flight will shut off your engine.

This is a setup that works best when you have a physical throttle stop on your throttle that inhibits you from dropping below idle while in flight. I've seen some pretty cool innovations that some pit builders have made for a idle detent that attaches to their throttle.

As for doing it using the clickable detent lever in the 3D pit, you only need to move the throttle until you see the animated throttle lever in the pit move and then you can unlock the idle detent. You should hear a "click". Then add power to make the RPM dial start moving. No need for full throttle here. I usually put in about half throttle and when the engine is spooled up, pull the throttle back to idle.

I have never worked on a jet engine before, but something says to me that it would be a waste of fuel to dump it into the nozzle during a start up and Afterburner is probably not necessary even if it does try to kick in during start up. Even Mil power is probably too much IRL.

You also have to check 'enable idle detent' in the configuration utility.

If you go under the advanced control settings, the place where you set the afterburner detent setpoint, if you right click instead of left click, it'll set the idle setpoint. Are you using one of the existing scripts for your Warthog, or are you using one you wrote yourself? Morphine has it set up by default in his WH script. I think Mud does too.

I'm using one I wrote my self. The way I set it is that the throttle will send the idle detente key press some 800ms after I move the stick past it in the forward direction, so I have time to get the axis to 50% before the key is sent.

It works perfectly, but I certainly wouldn't mind to have it working like IRL, where you just move the thorttle et voilà. Now I'll have to try this right click thing... once I install again... reinstalling the OS sucks.

There's no changing that % when using that method. However since you have a Warthog there's no need to use that method at all. With "set g_bUseAnalogIdleCutoff 1" option enabled you never have to think about the idle detent button again. With the above option set you can access the OFF position of the throttle just by reducing the axis value below the red line. Similarly you leave the OFF position by going above the red line.

The trick is getting the Warthog to output a different axis value when in the OFF position as in the IDLE position. The cutoff position by default simply presses buttons IDLELON, IDLERON. The THR_LEFT axis output is 0 in both the IDLE and OFF positions. It takes some TARGET scripting to make the IDLE axis output something other than 0 in IDLE and then to shift the axis value to 0 only when the idle button is pressed.


This is my TARGET code to make the the throttle go 4-100% normally (why 4%? turns out you need to go some below the red line and 3% isn't enough). Then the axis is shifted by 82/2048ths when the button is held by being in OFF which drops the output of the throttle low enough below the red line for Falcon to place the throttle in cutoff.


Correct, it's complete fiction. In the real F-16 the throttle handle... well, how about a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_7juPxOXus

+1 to Morphine's profile and his IDLE DETENT fix. I don't even have to go 50% travel... just 30% or so will do.