WINWING 15EX II Metal Throttle Grip with Finger Lift
What are they?
The F15 EX II Metal Throttles positions itself as an expanded version of the popular 15E Metal Throttles, the EX II version adds dual vibration motors, optimised button layout and more switches, hats and buttons allowing better cross compatibility with a variety of aircraft modules.
The addition of the Finger Lift kit adds 3 adjustable detent positions and a mechanic lift mechanism for scenarios like pushing through the afterburner detent or lifting over the gate for engine shutdown.
Check out our review of the Orion 2 Throttle Base that will be used in this review
About The Author:
Sean is a pilot with over two decades of experience in aviation and senior technology roles within Airlines and Non-Profit sectors. He’s a lifelong flight simmer and avid VR user, blending his passion for flying with cutting-edge technology. From cockpit to virtual skies, Sean loves all things Tech and Aviation.
Key Features
- Dual dynamic vibrating motors housing a motor inside each throttle handle
- Aluminium metal shell
- Compatible with all WINWING throttle bases
- Throttle Features
- Physical switches: 57
- Buttons: 18
- Axes: 4
- Thumbwheels: 3
- Hat Switches (5-way Switches): 6
- Finger Lift Features
- 3 Adjustable detent positions
- Mechanical Finger Lift
- Sync Lock for locking throttles together
Unboxing and Setup
Delivery of the finger lifts arrived at the same time as the Orion 2 throttle base and similar to all WINWING products is well packaged for its trip either from the Australian distributor or from overseas. The products arrived undamaged and are packaged well. As this unit was ordered with the finger lift kit, the finger lift and throttle grips come together in the same box.
Box Contents:
- Left and right throttle handle
- Left and right finger lift kit
- Adjustable centre detent assembly (mounted between throttles to provide gate to lift over)
- Associated screws, Allen keys and additional detent
Note – As is the standard with WINWING, no manual is included. These can be found on their Website > Download Center > Download.
Manual
Interestingly it looks like multiple manuals could exist for this setup. Firstly, the ‘15EX II Metal Throttle Grip (With Finger lift)’ or simply ‘Finger Lift for Orion2 Only’ that covers both the throttle handles and the finger lift assembly. Given the relatively simply nature the setup, it’s easy enough to simply build without the need for any manual.
Construction and Materials
As expected, the construction of both the Handles and Finger lift mechanism looks solid and well-constructed. The throttle handles themselves are made from cast aluminium and feel premium and have a solid weight in your hands. That added weight no doubt comes from the addition of the dual vibrating motors available in this version.
The handles boast a copious number of buttons, hats and rotary switches. Similar to the feel of the handle, anything you can click or move feels premium. Like other WINWING products I appreciate the added click buttons available to 4-way switches making them 5-way allowing for extra functionality. The only slight issue I noticed early on was that one of the 5 position switches has a rather smooth plastic button on it. Despite having a dimple, my fingers found trouble gripping it to successfully move it as needed.
The finger lift kit equally feels up to the task and is made from injection moulded plastic with a spring-loaded finger lift mechanism that lifts a bump stop over the plastic adjustable detent that is mounted to the throttle base. The finger lift kit does add some height to the throttle handles but despite this there is very little movement and slack in any of the mechanisms. Raising the finger lifts does not register as a button, they are simply a way to move physically past the stop gate and cannot be assigned in game.
Two areas have caught my attention however, the first is the springs and secondly the metal sync mechanism that joins the throttles together allowing for just one movement of both throttles.
- The springs used to create the spring action in the finger lifts themselves look quite small and the metal only has a diameter of just 0.5mm so I cant help but wonder about the longevity of their use. I noted no replacements are provided so WINWING must have confidence in their spring choice for a long life of service.
- Additionally, I found that while the mechanism used to join the throttle handles together is easy to activate, it’s just painful to unlock and go back to a dual throttle. I find that the rod itself moves upwards against the base of the handle and you need to devour your nail to get it to move back. Simply having the rod a few millimetres away from the base of the handle would solve this issue.
The adjustable detent mechanism is injection moulded plastic and comes in two pieces, a curved arch plate that is mounted between the left and right throttles and a notch that can be mounted in a custom position secured by a M4 bolt.
Setup and Configuration
Overall setup for the handles, finger lift and detent mechanism are fairly straight forward. Under the guidance of the manuals, you begin the install with the detent mechanism which is inserted between the left and right throttle and surprisingly secured with 2 x M4 55mm long bolts and nuts on the opposite side of the throttle base.
No pesky handles to ruin your fun!
From this point it’s a continuation of the hassle-free setup with the installation of the finger lift kit to each of the throttle arms. Using the provided bolts, you slide each finger lift over the metal arms of the throttle base and secure. I noted that at this point, the mechanism to join the throttles together is far easier to disengage without the throttle handles installed blocking access to the little metal rod.
Now things get spicy as you get the handles on and prepare for your first mission. Before blasting off the carrier, however, here lies a small tip before securing those handles. As the finger lift has a cut-out for the cables that you plugin into your throttle handles, ensure you plug your handles in prior to mounting them. Failing to do so means you don’t pass go, you don’t collect $200.
Ensure you plug those handles in prior to securing them, you can’t plug them in after mounting.
WINWING 15EX II (with finger lifts) mounted to the WINWING Orion 2 Throttle Base
Before setting off on a great adventure to my ejection seat, and what has become customary with WINWING products, I headed straight into SimAppPro (WINWING’s Software) to check for firmware updates and to peruse the lavish amount of configuration options that awaited me.
As usual I was not disappointed and what has been the case with all WINWING products so far, had a firmware update ready and waiting for me. Appreciative of the fact that they continually update their products with new firmware, I happily updated and yes officer, I unplugged everything else as instructed before I updated.
Once updated, you are presented with a familiar screen filled with several options for the configuration of the throttle handles, axes and buttons. Similarly to other WINWING products you also have the ability to calibrate your axes, download community made profiles and a new feature; Dynamic Vibration Motor settings.
Diving into the Test page, we can see our button and axis movements in realtime and change settings such as the mode various axes operate in. There are also vibration tests for both motors. In initial testing of the motors by running at 100% I noted that I could easily feel a vibration deep in my seat on the TR160S flight cockpit, these little motors do a great job and appear quite strong at 100%.
Another feature I noted was the ability to change “Switch mode”. In this setting you were able to change an axis to a series of button presses that would activate depending on the location of the encoder. This feature proved to be quite useful in the configuration of numerous addons in DCS like the Hornet and AH64 where what I wanted to control couldn’t be controlled via an axis and needed to be a button push instead. A very handy feature indeed!
Similarly to other WINWING Products, profiles for assignements created by the community are available and located under the “Key Binding” Tab in the main screen of SimAppPro. As I’ve mentioned in my other reviews, if you have done any manual assignment of buttons in DCS prior to selecting a profile, those already assigned buttons will be overriden without a backup being made. I suggest if you do want to try some great community created profiles, create your own profile locallying in SimAppPro named Backup.
Note for DCS specifically, selecting a control profile must be done with the simulator closed.
Backup file created prior to the running of any community profiles from the right side.
Similar to profiles sharing for Key Bindings, Vibrations settings also have shareable profiles made by the community. Before getting started you have multiple options for Vibrations.
- Disabled removed the vibrations if they’re not your cup of tea
- Default uses the inbuilt WINWING vibration configuration
- Advanced that allows you to customise or download community developed vibration profiles.
I noted that each throttle handle gets its own independent profile and that a profile must be assigned to each handle. It also looks like that at the time of this review, DCS is the only simulator available for the creation of vibration profiles.
Looking identical to Key Bindings, Vibration profiles are applied in the same way.
Anyone who has read my previous reviews covering SimAppPro in the past will know that I like the application from a functional viewpoint but from a UI design perspective, well it could do with some love. I can say that I wasn’t shocked when I went looking to create my own vibration profile. Once you have created a new local profile, clicking the 3 dots and selecting edit presents you with this mother of a screen.
It was at this point that I poured another glass of wine and sat down to try and understand how this beast works. Similar to the rest of the application, its functional but not overly intuiative. In starting my lesson in learning this screen I thought a good place to start would be observing what others within their community files I’d downloaded had done. Unfortunately it looks like (for me anyway) clicking edit on downloaded files simply showed a blank editor identifcal to above.
Jumping in, I thought landing gear configuration would be a good place to start. Removing about half the configure points, I set about creating a profile that as the landing gear extended would gradually bring the vibration motors up to 60%.
Once my simply vibration profile was built, I ran it but quickly remembered that each motor (in fact, throttle handle) needed its own profile and that I’d only built a vibration profile for the left handle only. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to either sync my newly created profile to the right throttle or copy/paste the work I’d done into a fresh profile. It would appear that you would need to duplicate your work again which is not ideal at all. I took some solace in the fact that during my test flight I got some vibrations as my gear lowered!
How They Feel And Fly
After spending days in the F18 and AH64 I’m confident to say that the throttle handles hold up well and the bountiful number of buttons on the EXII make it great for complex aircraft such as the AH64. When flying the hornet I simply ran out of things to assign. Given you have a lot of 5-way buttons such as on the right throttle where your thumb would rest, you can really fine tune what’s comfortable and practical for your flying experience.
The 5-way button that I’d mentioned during setup continue to plague me during longer sessions where either my hands became sweaty or a little oily. I found my finger would slip and I had to be really deliberate in the direction I wanted the switch to operate in.
Another switch that gave me trouble surprisingly was the 3-position metal switch on the far-left side of the left throttle. This metal switch that sits below an encoder wheel felt a little low to me and when I had it configured for Flare/Chaff found I’d have to rotate my hand counterclockwise significantly to reach and activate it. Not something you want to have to reach for when you require a flare! I ended up ditching that idea and moving the flares and chaff to my stick and demoted that switch to an external light switch. Other than that, the handles held up flawlessly.
The finger lift mechanism in its configuration of a gate (to pull over) for engine shutdown and push through for afterburners operated smoothly and without issue and I found the whole experience of lifting the flaps and moving over the gate very immersive, it was a similar experience in the opposite direction during engine start with a satisfying “click” as you add fuel.
There is one area however that I felt a little disappointed in and that was the throttle sync/joiner metal slider. As mentioned, it continued to be a problem during flight where I was trying to disengage the lock and bring back the dual throttles. Over my test sessions held over multiple days, I ended up denting my thumbnail from so many repeated attempts at separating the throttles. Perhaps I need to work on not getting shot down so often? You be the judge!
Unfortunately, the issues continued with this metal slider and either down to my lovely attempt at a vibration profile or the added bumps and thumps of my Sigma Integrale DK2+ I had the metal pin fall out and into my hands. It had become unscrewed over time and dropped out.
And in more news on the slider, once the throttles were joined, I did notice some slight movement between the left and right throttles, they weren’t completely locked together. Diving back into SimAppPro confirmed the movement and whilst in DCS it only resulted in 1 – 2% change in engine thrust, It did cause issues when you got close to the afterburner detent in something like the F18 Hornet.
When you’re right on the detent at max MIL power, the slight difference was enough to put the right engine up and into afterburner which greatly increased the RPM on the right engine over the left. While it happened to me infrequently and probably could be edited out either through a curve or through the afterburner settings in SimAppPro, I did find the movement between the left and right throttles once locked disappointing.
SimAppPro’s calibration screen showing the slight movement in left and right throttles even when locked together.
Conclusions
The F15EX II throttle handles with finger lift kit provide an immersive experience and with the inclusion of the dual vibration motors, a plethora of buttons and switches make it a premium and versatile setup for a variety of different aircraft modules. Despite some minor issues surrounding the throttle lock/sync specifically and some minor software quality of life improvements, the overall performance and build quality are of a high standard and suitable for a device in this price range.
Anyone looking to have throttles that can be versatile enough to allow you to configure them for a variety of different aircraft and want a premium long lasting device should seriously consider mating a set of these to a WINWING throttle base such as the Orion 2.
Pros
- Premium, quality feel
- Customisable throttle detents
- Customisable button and axis configurations
- Added vibrations/feedback surprisingly immersive
- Throttle handles teeming with buttons
- Finger lift’s feel great to use and add to immersion
Cons
- Throttle Lock/Sync rod
- Easy to engage, difficult to disengage
- Slight movement still between the left and right throttles when engaged
- Small metal rod used to engage and disengage could come loose over time.
- Custom vibration configuration within SimAppPro is not intuitive and is overly complex and not shareable between left and right throttle handles.
