You might remember I first mentioned my interest in the new Winwing Airbus FCU back in May when I posted about my brand new purchase of the Thrustmaster Airbus Captains Pack. Well I had placed my order for the Winwing FCU way back on 23 April and had all but lost hope that I would ever receive it. Roll forward 2.5 months and I finally have it in my hands.
The Winwing Airbus FCU arrived nicely packaged to my address via Fedex. The package shipped directly from China and spent nearly a week in Japan, before finally making it to Memphis and then on to Denver. The box you see below had an outer layer of white plastic protecting the box and where the labels were attached.
Upon opening the box, everything inside was protected in styrofoam.
Removing the top layer revealed the included USB cable and hardware to mount the included plastic stands.
and finally the well packaged and protected FCU
Installation and Setup
Unfortunately, the package contains no documentation. I was already expecting this as I had watched several YouTube videos showcasing the unboxing and setup of the WinWing FCU prior to receiving my unit. I realize we’re all trying our best to reduce the amount of paper waste, but WinWing hasn’t even bothered to put together an online user guide that I could locate on their website. But like I said, there are a few YouTube videos which will help walk you through the steps of what needs to be done. The best video to watch is by Easyjetsimpilot and the link to that video is is here.
While I followed step-by-step-by every excruciating step of the above mentioned video, I ran into issues which I struggled to get around. My hardware setup is fairly massive, but certainly not unique. I have over a dozen USB peripherals which I use just for flight sim. These include of course my newish Thrustmaster Captain’s Edition stick, throttles and other side devices, my rudder pedals, my yoke and multiple GoFlight hardware modules I use when flying the PMDG aircraft. I also have a Razr keypad I use for controlling my views along with many other devices. Some are directly connected to the PC and others are plugged into powered USB hubs.
While it is true some of these devices aren’t all used on every flight. Example, I don’t use my yoke when I fly an Airbus and I don’t use the majority of the GoFlight hardware in the same scenario, the thought of having to disconnect and reconnect these devices just to keep the Winwing FCU happy was frustrating. After stepping away from my system for a few hours, I finally figured out that somehow there is a conflict between the Winwing FCU and my Logitech Racing Wheel. OK, I can live with not having the racing wheel connected when running flight sim. So to keep the Winwing happy and allow me to enjoy some Fenix Airbus A320 flying, it’s disconnected.
Overall Opinions on the product
Other than the frustrations I mentioned above, I am mostly pleased with the Winwing FCU. Having it, along with the Thrustmaster Captain’s Pack has greatly reduced the amount of use needed from the mouse and keyboard and I’m very excited about that. Flying the Fenix A320 is just as enjoyable and immersive as flying the PMDG 737-800. For that reason, I’m very happy with the product. The FCU appears to be well made. I have it installed just under my monitor and while this is working for now, I want to do something a little different, but haven’t quite figured out what that will be just yet. Most likely this will be pushed out as I plan to have a much different setup once we move and can live with the way it is for now.
I must admit that I was shocked to learn that upon initial connection with the FCU and their SimAppPro software that a firmware update was required. I could certainly understand if my FCU had been sitting on a shelf in some obscure warehouse for months prior to be ordering it, but I assume with the 2.5 month wait I experienced that my FCU was “hot off the presses” and should have arrived to me ready to go.
But I also think what is seriously lacking with my Winwing FCU experience is their SimApp Pro software. In my opinion it seems to be very clunky in use. But it is what it is and I will live with it.
Final Thoughts
After learning about their future plans during FSExpo to release more hardware devices for the sim, I was excited. But this excitement (at least for now) has been taken back a few notches. But we’ll see what happens over time. If a new product were to be announced (example their EFIS panel) I most likely would wait before ordering it. Especially if the wait for that product is going to be 2-3 months as we’re most likely moving to Texas later this year (read more about this here) and wouldn’t want to place an order while I’m still in Colorado.
So far I’ve flown about 3 flights with the Winwing FCU and as previously stated, I’m really loving the added immersion of not needing to use my mouse to control the functions contained within the FCU hardware. As I have no experience with the other available FCU hardware options, I honestly can say that I’m 100% happy with the Winwing FCU.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry