🚀🚀🚀IMPORTANT : So guys great comments and feedback keep it going! Yes competition has cams and springs. But for those who are loyal to thrustmaster brand, Esp the warthog, this is the upgrade and review for them.
I pre-ordered this direct from TM and got it at release. Brilliant update with incredible smoothness andzero stiction compared to the old base, plus adjustability via cams and 3 sets of springs. I use the medium springs on near minimum tension to replicate the feel of the 150mm extension I used to have to use on the original base. Ignore the haters who are undoubtedly just fanboys of other sticks. This is a great upgrade for existing Warthog users with any of grips (which are diecast metal not plastic like some others).
@@plazma1945you like dangerous activities, I bet you buy dcs preorders as well. Good review man, that ava base is looking awesome. I wonder if it’s tight enough at the center to feel it. The warhog it too tight for refueling but I can fell the center point without any doubt. Cheers!
I believe you answered the question I wanted answered. You stated something about the plastic neck. This leads me to believe the critical link between the metal grip and the rest of the "all metal" base is plastic. Virpil WarBRD + Constellation Alpha Prime is truly all metal where it matters. It seems the AVA is all metal everywhere except at it's heart, similar to the Warthog. I prefer truth over deceptive marketing, so TM is still a hard pass. Note: I currently own a failing Warthog. I replaced it after about 60 hours of use (TM support ignored me). The Virpil setup I replaced it with hasn't had any issues for several hundred hours of use.
@@plazma1945 I've been lucky enough to have plastic AND electronic failures on my TM products. My Warthog throttle PCB has failed twice and the PCB on the stick once...until the gimbal finally broke. I went to VIRPIL and won't go back. And the Warthog grip, the only still functioning bit I own, is compatible. I also have their Load Cell pedals for driving sims...they are supposed to have bulletproof, auto-engineering grade electronics, and the ones I bought were bust right out the box. No TM for me.
I had already changed by base to a Virpil, that does the same thing. I would go back to a Thrustmaster base if it had metal components and had good force feed back.
Good point, I've stuck it out on my warthog so for me this is a great upgrade many others gave up and moved to the vkb winwing and Virpil world which had cams and all
Nice video with gameplay! I have finally also bought it and compare it with my virpil warbrd it is totally different. So much smooth in the center. Please correct your video because what you call neck is the the true gimball (in black) and it is metal painted. Simple, if you remove the white sticker, you will see some marks when changing your grip. There is no detent in the center, so if you feel something, it is either because the cam is not properly tightened rOR MORE IMPORTANTLY, you have a lose screw inside your A10 grip! this is very easy to fix and i did mine too. No more noise
The Virpil Warbrd-D is currently at 220€, The Thrustmaster AVA Base is 280€. This doesn`t make any sense. How did the end up with a more expensive base?
Thrustmaster's been sitting on the fence for too long and now bring out their best with a plastic interface, that about wraps Thrustmaster up for me. I'll stick with VPC.
Soooo.. Save your warthog bindings and after switching to Eva, You can reload your Thrustmaster bindings to the Eva. But about three buttons or four you will need to remap
Havent looked into this and the new moza base, but i think i'll be purchasing a 2nd base so i have a side stick and center stick position without having to remount every time i switch from chopper to jet, my current base is hardmounted on a racing cockpit so its a hassle. I think the moza is more expensive but its ffb right?
I had a clicking noise as well wich turned out to be the stick itself (f-16) tightened all the allen key screws and its gone. Missing a damper as well but one is coming so it seems
Nice, just so I don't feel like a crackpot as people are slamming my video in comments, did you notice the feel of ava compared to old base... I mean with everyone popping 💩 on me in comments I'm starting to worry, like do I have confirmation bias. 🤐
It is far more precise than the old one , way better ! Damper would be nice but what I really like is the spring adjustment . Haven’t tried the other springs etc to be honest , like it just the way it came out of the box !
@@plazma1945 what you have in comments are fanboy from other brands coming and shitting on people for unknown reasons. If I don't like it, I don't watch it. I have both Virpil warbrd and AVA now, and it is totally different product for 2 different experience. if you have fun, that's the most important
@@aquamich129 how would u compare the two what's the feel and feedback. I think if you made a video or wrote about it people would like To hear. ❤️ Tell us more
I bought one. Is it the best base on the market no idea, but it's like night and day compared to the warthog 100%. I highly recommend it to anyone already owning a warthog it's super smooth compared
100% its weirf just how Smooth and also springy it is, there is that resistance kinda feels like there is a real jet or. Something. Behind it. Great change for me!
hmm no idea, I am a warthog guy.. but if you have amazon you can probably buy and return .. the sticks for Warthog are solid and metal, not sure how they are for winwing.. winwing is a great product too.. but i havent tried it.
@@plazma1945someday you should. I have had many thrustmaster products and although they work most of the time the price vs the quality is not where it should be compared to other brands they are competing with. Basically they are selling based on name brand alone.
Nice review. Thank you for your work. Much better than the Warthog (which was trash), but still too many plastic parts for this price-tier, and no integrated damper. IMHO, this AVA base comes too late to the marketplace, and will have some hard time justifying its price when compared with Virpil, VKB, or even Wingwing.
good point, i held out and never went to a virpil or vkb myself. but other guys in the squad SWEAR by those excellent products. actually there are Dampers integrated go to page 35 of the manual ts.thrustmaster.com/download/accessories/Manuals/AVA_Base/AVA-base_user-manual.pdf
@@plazma1945 Thank you for your feedback !!! It was my bad. I misdunderstood other reviews which underlined it had no adjustable dampers/dampeners. So it has dampers/dampeners indeed, but not adjustable (to the point you could make it a deadstick).
@@plazma1945 You would have been disappointed in the Virpil grips possibly. After using the WH I could not get used to holding plastic in my hand. That's why when I went back to the WH grip. As far as dampers go I built a new aluminum plate base that holds 4 really good hydraulic dampers. Not those cheap 25 dollar ones either. Made a huge difference.
@@PeypaMikko-1842 yeah i took my dampers off for now.. flying without them I bet there will be aftermarket ones also since there is a place to attach them
Do like the rest of us. Bad landing = the stick's fault! I had a friend send me his old Virpil which has the springs and cams. Good performance. I think it made in flight refueling a little easier.
For the Price it should come with a stick. This product is way over priced. It should be in the $300 range max. Right now it is almost $600. For the price of this base alone a person could an excellent VKB stick and throttle.
I bought the AVA base, and after unboxing it, that was exactly what I thought. The base is OK, but it is not a gamechanger. It is about what Virpil or VKB have since years. It removes the stickyness around the center that was the worst drawback of the old Warthog base, but offers not much more. The stick is wobbly around the center, and the forces are increasing too much towards the maximum. Adjusting them with the screws (regardless of which springs you use) makes the center position even more wobbly without fixing the too high forces at the maxima. I wouldn't buy the AVA base again but instead wait for an affordable FF-base, ideally compatible with TM grips.
Its for certain it will be better than the aging crappy plastic gymbal toyish Warthog, the real question is: Is it good enough to compete with Virpil and Wing Wing? thats what most want to know.
If I could get a quality and fast delivery from vkb and Virpil I'd try it and compare. But sadly I don't know. People like all the extra triggers and such.. I am a fan of my warthog can feel it in the dark on my four five modules I fly.. I don't wanna learn another stick Hahaha.. I'm lazy
Better the warthog? Better the warthog is not nearly good enough. We had better then warthog for years. This needs to outperform vkb and virpil by a considerable margin since most of us replaced that warthog base ages ago, and I don’t think ava is that.
@@plazma1945 I never heard of "hard core warthog guys" when it comes to base. Everyone who like the stick like I do, got a far better base years ago and kept using that very realistic metal grip. "Omg I love this base so much that I got a new grip for it" said nobody ever about warthog base.
@@kurt120032002 lol.. yes.. and my squad mates suggested i change to a different stick or base.. but i was always like.. naw naw naw.. now that i got the ava i realized what I was missing.. it was a huge thing. should have switched earlier. but better later than never :)
Fair ppoint. I've got the warthog stick and base now for about three years it has been worry free in the stock and throttle for me. But yeah this ava upgrade is worth it if you have warthog. I would say consider it. Or get a vkb stick their gladiators are freaking awamazing for a great price
Sooo "game changer" and "breakthrough" actually means "what the competition has been doing for years" now. How about you up your sensationalism a bit more? I'm missing the good old: "This changes everything". Get real man...
Hey hey. For those of us on old old old warthogs it is. And that's what this video compares it to. The vkb and Virpil and winwing all have the cams and springs... But for those of us who have been sticking to the warthog... This is truly and really a game changer.
@@plazma1945 Agree, compared to the Warthog base this is a game changer, best money I've spent. And, it was a lot cheaper than getting a VKB, Virpil, or Winwing shipped to me, I priced out all of them, and Ava was the cheapest price. Quality is top notch, couldn't be happier. Flying heli's in DCS, MSFS2020 is a whole new experience when compared to the Warthog base, with that god awful spring.
@@offgrid1461 Hahaha yes, it's funny my squad mate @resin00 was telling me about beauty of cam based bases from vkb Virpil, but I was like nahhh Nahhh.... But once I got it on the ava. I was like whoa game changer
Is it better? Indeed. But long overdue. Big size of TM made it too inert to innovate. It completely missed train of cheap direct drive wheelbases allowing cheap chinese ones take over market. Though a bit less, and not loosing market share in niche that much, they were long overdue at releasing metal gimbal aswell, for quite some time VPC and alikes taking over market while "lazy boy rested on laurels and ignored what's happening around". But AVA is not revolutionary, just returned on par with what competitors were offering for few years already, and returned TM to considerable purchase list. Revolutionary would be adding force feedback, but i guess it would cost too much making it too niche of product, thus not to be.
Indeed, and I think I saw feedback from winwing coming? But I digress, for me it felt revolutionary though. As a user of the old warthog jumping to this was pretty epic.
GUYS DON'T BE KIDDING YOURSELVES THE OLD THRUSTMASTER WARHDOG IS BETTER THAN THE NEW I GOT IT AFTER FLYING FOR HOURS AND NO DIFFERENCE FROM THE ORIGINAL
🚀🚀🚀IMPORTANT : So guys great comments and feedback keep it going! Yes competition has cams and springs. But for those who are loyal to thrustmaster brand, Esp the warthog, this is the upgrade and review for them.
I pre-ordered this direct from TM and got it at release. Brilliant update with incredible smoothness andzero stiction compared to the old base, plus adjustability via cams and 3 sets of springs. I use the medium springs on near minimum tension to replicate the feel of the 150mm extension I used to have to use on the original base. Ignore the haters who are undoubtedly just fanboys of other sticks.
This is a great upgrade for existing Warthog users with any of grips (which are diecast metal not plastic like some others).
🚀👍
I absolutely love your George Costanza fur rug at the beginning of the video. I didn’t realize that George actually was in the flight simulation.
First ava unboxing over a hibernating polar bear had me keeping my breath till the end
Last it was used pre covid to shoot boudoir lingerie model photo shoot... Haha, seemed about right
@@plazma1945you like dangerous activities, I bet you buy dcs preorders as well. Good review man, that ava base is looking awesome. I wonder if it’s tight enough at the center to feel it. The warhog it too tight for refueling but I can fell the center point without any doubt.
Cheers!
@@moiluckHahaha no I don't do preorders still don't have an F15 or F4 or Apache
AVA is a joystick that after many years is finally catching up with the competition from Vipril, VKB and Winwing.
👍
I just checked and there aren't any on Amazon right now. It's about time WH stepped up their game. Virpil base plus WH grip is my favorite combo.
Whoa sold Out? Yeah amazon is a good bet I'd you don't like it you can send it back quick. Do a search without my link maybe another seller has it.
@@plazma1945 It shows it on there but no price or delivery date. That's what I love about amazon- the return policy
I believe you answered the question I wanted answered. You stated something about the plastic neck. This leads me to believe the critical link between the metal grip and the rest of the "all metal" base is plastic. Virpil WarBRD + Constellation Alpha Prime is truly all metal where it matters. It seems the AVA is all metal everywhere except at it's heart, similar to the Warthog. I prefer truth over deceptive marketing, so TM is still a hard pass.
Note: I currently own a failing Warthog. I replaced it after about 60 hours of use (TM support ignored me). The Virpil setup I replaced it with hasn't had any issues for several hundred hours of use.
Aye. You are correct and yes and yes. The interface is plastic just like warthog
@@plazma1945 I've been lucky enough to have plastic AND electronic failures on my TM products. My Warthog throttle PCB has failed twice and the PCB on the stick once...until the gimbal finally broke. I went to VIRPIL and won't go back. And the Warthog grip, the only still functioning bit I own, is compatible.
I also have their Load Cell pedals for driving sims...they are supposed to have bulletproof, auto-engineering grade electronics, and the ones I bought were bust right out the box. No TM for me.
I had already changed by base to a Virpil, that does the same thing. I would go back to a Thrustmaster base if it had metal components and had good force feed back.
Good point, I've stuck it out on my warthog so for me this is a great upgrade many others gave up and moved to the vkb winwing and Virpil world which had cams and all
Nice video with gameplay! I have finally also bought it and compare it with my virpil warbrd it is totally different. So much smooth in the center. Please correct your video because what you call neck is the the true gimball (in black) and it is metal painted. Simple, if you remove the white sticker, you will see some marks when changing your grip. There is no detent in the center, so if you feel something, it is either because the cam is not properly tightened rOR MORE IMPORTANTLY, you have a lose screw inside your A10 grip! this is very easy to fix and i did mine too. No more noise
Totally correct!
Thanks.... But.. There is a screw inside the stick??? what??? .....! Lol thanks guys I'm on it
The Virpil Warbrd-D is currently at 220€, The Thrustmaster AVA Base is 280€.
This doesn`t make any sense. How did the end up with a more expensive base?
thats a great price and deal . looks very good
Thrustmaster's been sitting on the fence for too long and now bring out their best with a plastic interface, that about wraps Thrustmaster up for me. I'll stick with VPC.
So far it's been a few months seems ok fingers crossed
Also the force feedback stuff has now come out
In DCS do you have to reprogram all your control settings or does it recognize it as a warthog stick and is plug and play?
Soooo.. Save your warthog bindings and after switching to Eva, You can reload your Thrustmaster bindings to the Eva. But about three buttons or four you will need to remap
Havent looked into this and the new moza base, but i think i'll be purchasing a 2nd base so i have a side stick and center stick position without having to remount every time i switch from chopper to jet, my current base is hardmounted on a racing cockpit so its a hassle. I think the moza is more expensive but its ffb right?
yup got the ava and the moza looks real good.. with force feedback.. darn
I had a clicking noise as well wich turned out to be the stick itself (f-16) tightened all the allen key screws and its gone. Missing a damper as well but one is coming so it seems
Nice, just so I don't feel like a crackpot as people are slamming my video in comments, did you notice the feel of ava compared to old base... I mean with everyone popping 💩 on me in comments I'm starting to worry, like do I have confirmation bias. 🤐
It is far more precise than the old one , way better ! Damper would be nice but what I really like is the spring adjustment .
Haven’t tried the other springs etc to be honest , like it just the way it came out of the box !
@@remcosol Hahaha me too I'm. Enjoying it as is for now as well
@@plazma1945 what you have in comments are fanboy from other brands coming and shitting on people for unknown reasons. If I don't like it, I don't watch it. I have both Virpil warbrd and AVA now, and it is totally different product for 2 different experience. if you have fun, that's the most important
@@aquamich129 how would u compare the two what's the feel and feedback. I think if you made a video or wrote about it people would like
To hear. ❤️ Tell us more
I bought one. Is it the best base on the market no idea, but it's like night and day compared to the warthog 100%. I highly recommend it to anyone already owning a warthog it's super smooth compared
100% its weirf just how Smooth and also springy it is, there is that resistance kinda feels like there is a real jet or. Something. Behind it. Great change for me!
Better question is it better than winwing orion which can be had for very similar price
hmm no idea, I am a warthog guy.. but if you have amazon you can probably buy and return .. the sticks for Warthog are solid and metal, not sure how they are for winwing.. winwing is a great product too.. but i havent tried it.
@@plazma1945someday you should. I have had many thrustmaster products and although they work most of the time the price vs the quality is not where it should be compared to other brands they are competing with. Basically they are selling based on name brand alone.
Nice review. Thank you for your work. Much better than the Warthog (which was trash), but still too many plastic parts for this price-tier, and no integrated damper. IMHO, this AVA base comes too late to the marketplace, and will have some hard time justifying its price when compared with Virpil, VKB, or even Wingwing.
good point, i held out and never went to a virpil or vkb myself. but other guys in the squad SWEAR by those excellent products.
actually there are Dampers integrated go to page 35 of the manual ts.thrustmaster.com/download/accessories/Manuals/AVA_Base/AVA-base_user-manual.pdf
@@plazma1945 Thank you for your feedback !!! It was my bad. I misdunderstood other reviews which underlined it had no adjustable dampers/dampeners. So it has dampers/dampeners indeed, but not adjustable (to the point you could make it a deadstick).
@@plazma1945 You would have been disappointed in the Virpil grips possibly. After using the WH I could not get used to holding plastic in my hand. That's why when I went back to the WH grip. As far as dampers go I built a new aluminum plate base that holds 4 really good hydraulic dampers. Not those cheap 25 dollar ones either. Made a huge difference.
@@PeypaMikko-1842 yeah i took my dampers off for now.. flying without them I bet there will be aftermarket ones also since there is a place to attach them
What desk mount do you use?
amzn.to/3Kp7SaY this one here works good but watch out if you have an ikea desk
Do like the rest of us. Bad landing = the stick's fault! I had a friend send me his old Virpil which has the springs and cams. Good performance. I think it made in flight refueling a little easier.
Hehehe yes
I should a given a bit more power on that glide and landed a bit farther not plop down like a sack of poo hahaha
For the Price it should come with a stick. This product is way over priced. It should be in the $300 range max. Right now it is almost $600. For the price of this base alone a person could an excellent VKB stick and throttle.
the base is 299 usd 399 canadian - not sure how you are seeing 600$ post a link im curious - check links in my video description
I bought the AVA base, and after unboxing it, that was exactly what I thought.
The base is OK, but it is not a gamechanger. It is about what Virpil or VKB have since years. It removes the stickyness around the center that was the worst drawback of the old Warthog base, but offers not much more. The stick is wobbly around the center, and the forces are increasing too much towards the maximum.
Adjusting them with the screws (regardless of which springs you use) makes the center position even more wobbly without fixing the too high forces at the maxima.
I wouldn't buy the AVA base again but instead wait for an affordable FF-base, ideally compatible with TM grips.
@@stscc01 can you return it? If it doesn't. Meet requirements send it back
Its for certain it will be better than the aging crappy plastic gymbal toyish Warthog, the real question is: Is it good enough to compete with Virpil and Wing Wing? thats what most want to know.
If I could get a quality and fast delivery from vkb and Virpil I'd try it and compare. But sadly I don't know. People like all the extra triggers and such.. I am a fan of my warthog can feel it in the dark on my four five modules I fly.. I don't wanna learn another stick Hahaha.. I'm lazy
Better the warthog? Better the warthog is not nearly good enough. We had better then warthog for years. This needs to outperform vkb and virpil by a considerable margin since most of us replaced that warthog base ages ago, and I don’t think ava is that.
for the hardcore warthog guys who only had warthog its pretty great. the adjustability is awesome
@@plazma1945 I never heard of "hard core warthog guys" when it comes to base. Everyone who like the stick like I do, got a far better base years ago and kept using that very realistic metal grip. "Omg I love this base so much that I got a new grip for it" said nobody ever about warthog base.
@@kurt120032002 lol.. yes.. and my squad mates suggested i change to a different stick or base.. but i was always like.. naw naw naw.. now that i got the ava i realized what I was missing.. it was a huge thing. should have switched earlier. but better later than never :)
Yeah i sold my thrustmaster stuff and bought winwing great stuff, thrusmaster is late to the game.
I was teetering and this came out, thrustmaster was indeed behind by… say five years?
@@plazma1945 i would still go with winwing man or virpil thise 2 are un beatable in my book i woukd return that if ya could
After dealing with the overpriced t16000m (and now broken) series I will be giving this a hard pass.
Fair ppoint. I've got the warthog stick and base now for about three years it has been worry free in the stock and throttle for me. But yeah this ava upgrade is worth it if you have warthog. I would say consider it. Or get a vkb stick their gladiators are freaking awamazing for a great price
Sooo "game changer" and "breakthrough" actually means "what the competition has been doing for years" now.
How about you up your sensationalism a bit more? I'm missing the good old: "This changes everything".
Get real man...
Hey hey. For those of us on old old old warthogs it is. And that's what this video compares it to. The vkb and Virpil and winwing all have the cams and springs... But for those of us who have been sticking to the warthog... This is truly and really a game changer.
Agree with my response.
@@plazma1945 Agree, compared to the Warthog base this is a game changer, best money I've spent. And, it was a lot cheaper than getting a VKB, Virpil, or Winwing shipped to me, I priced out all of them, and Ava was the cheapest price. Quality is top notch, couldn't be happier. Flying heli's in DCS, MSFS2020 is a whole new experience when compared to the Warthog base, with that god awful spring.
@@offgrid1461 Hahaha yes, it's funny my squad mate @resin00 was telling me about beauty of cam based bases from vkb Virpil, but I was like nahhh
Nahhh....
But once I got it on the ava. I was like whoa game changer
Does not work with TARGET software. If you have the old base keymapped through it, it will ruin your day.
Ahh interesting never used target I go everything directly into dcs
@@plazma1945 I complained to Thrustmaster and they responded that the support will be released July 16th
Is it better? Indeed. But long overdue. Big size of TM made it too inert to innovate. It completely missed train of cheap direct drive wheelbases allowing cheap chinese ones take over market. Though a bit less, and not loosing market share in niche that much, they were long overdue at releasing metal gimbal aswell, for quite some time VPC and alikes taking over market while "lazy boy rested on laurels and ignored what's happening around".
But AVA is not revolutionary, just returned on par with what competitors were offering for few years already, and returned TM to considerable purchase list.
Revolutionary would be adding force feedback, but i guess it would cost too much making it too niche of product, thus not to be.
Indeed, and I think I saw feedback from winwing coming? But I digress, for me it felt revolutionary though. As a user of the old warthog jumping to this was pretty epic.
GUYS DON'T BE KIDDING YOURSELVES THE OLD THRUSTMASTER WARHDOG IS BETTER THAN THE NEW I GOT IT AFTER FLYING FOR HOURS AND NO DIFFERENCE FROM THE ORIGINAL
Ummm, you didn't feel the difference from the springs and cams, extra tension and precision? I definitely felt it and keeping the ava base