A-10 Virtual Cockpit Free lets you use an iPad to control DCS A-10C

As we found in our review, DCS A-10C has an amazing amount of detail in the way that it recreates the American A-10C attack aircraft.

One of the challenges when playing the game is remember the huge array of keyboard commands. Using the mouse goes some way to help matters but it never feels quite right.

A-10C Virtual Cockpit solves this problem by displaying some of the cockpit controls on the iPad. As the iPad has a touchscreen you can simply tap on the buttons rather than trying to remember exact key combinations.

The software has been available for a little while but this is the newly released free version. It has some limitations compared to the full version but is still very useful.

It reproduces the two multifunction displays on the A-10C along with a separate screen showing the Up Front Controller, warning lights and some other useful controls.

All of the these sections of the cockpit have lots of small buttons that make using a mouse very difficult. Simulating these buttons on the iPad makes it much easier.

In order to work, the iPad must be on the same local network as the computer with A-10C and the Virtual Cockpit server software must be installed on it.

Installation is simple and the server software is very simple to use. It has just two indicators, one for the iPad and the other for the game itself. The server software can be downloaded at no cost from the Bit-Shift website here at no cost.

Start the Virtual Cockpit on the iPad and the relevant indicator on the server window should turn green. Once the game has started the other indicator will turn green and the control panels on the iPad will update once you are in the cockpit.

Although connecting the iPad to the computer was very simple, setting up the game screen so that the right part of the Multi Function Displays were shown on the iPad was a little tricky. Although we got it working, we're not sure if we did it exactly right so expect to spend some time tweaking the controls.

The full version has even more features including an extra control panel (the CDU), the ability to show just one of the multifunction displays fullscreen on the iPad and radio controls. Click here to find out more.

To be honest, given the cost of a computer powerful enough to play DCS A-10C and an iPad, the cost of the full version (£21) isn't really that much. This free version gives a good preview of how it works but you'll probably want to upgrade for the complete set of features.