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Yoke vs stick

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Yoke vs stick

Postby jbaniqued » Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:37 pm

I'm new to Flight Gear and new to this forum. I am a licensed, single engine land, instrument rated pilot. I run Windows 10 on an Intel I7 processor. I just recently started flying with Flight Gear. I am using an old MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick, very imprecise! I mainly use Flight Gear for GA aircraft, particularly for ISL approach practice. I want to replace the joystick. What is the best yoke and what is the best stick for Flight Gear? Also, which is the best, yoke or joystick, for GA aircraft flying. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
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Re: Yoke vs stick

Postby hamzaalloush » Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:53 am

Hello and welcome to the Flightgear forum,

I've tried various joysticks and a couple of yokes for Flightgear, with feedback from a multi-engine commercial pilot who's also an advanced sim user and we actually cycled together the same hardware, for a consumer level yoke there's only a couple of options, the CH Products and Saitek,

While the Saitek is a more polished product with some bells and whistles, it was surprisingly the CH Products that offers the most precision and control, unlike the Saitek which has a known issue with sensor reading near the center[1][2][3], with the CH Products the elevator movement through the center is predictable, throttle, prop, and mixture levers all within finger reach and have really nice tactile feedback from small inputs, it's that simple there's no need for additional pieces of expensive hardware on your desk for those.

With yokes you have to buy additional rudder pedals, But I can't really suggest on the rudder pedals purchase as I've only had Saitek pedals, two of them eventually suffer from toe-brakes spring failure after heavy use where the pedals will eventually start to decompress and tip over actuating the brakes in their resting position, I won't buy any more hardware from that brand.

For joysticks I've had several, from entry-level to enthusiast, in my mind there are two paths, if you prefer to have a joystick with a twist rudder, the most bang for your buck all-rounder would be Thrustmaster's T.16000, these use the same sensors found on their more expensive 200$(stick-only price) Warthog joystick but with a much more reasonable spring for civilian aircraft use, these also can come bundled from Thrustmaster in an "FCS" package with some HOTAS throttles for $99.99, plug-and-play with Flightgear, although they have mushy buttons and control is nothing to write home about, it has very little to complain about at that price range,

On the other hand if you want to actually have fun in sim, I would recommend VKB-Sim, forget about fixed-wing aircraft, these are precise enough you'd actually start hovering helicopters with little practice, although these are not plug-and-play, and you have to do some assembly on arrival and try out a few included springs, they also won't come with a hand twist rudder which i haven't found to be sufficient anyway, if you want to de-crab and land on your marks without picking bad habbits for your flying in real life, you'll want rudder pedals.

-Hamza

[1] Saitek Pro Flight Yoke Dead Zone Fix
[2] Are Saitek yoke problems are solved?
[3] Saitek Pro Flight Yoke Uneven Deadzones
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Re: Yoke vs stick

Postby stuart » Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:37 pm

Hi,

I have a selection of Saiteck (yoke, pedals, throttle, trim) and CH Products (fighter stick, pedals, throttle). About 5 years ago I wrote up an article on the wiki regarding the Saitek equipement http://wiki.flightgear.org/Hardware_Review:_Saitek_Pro_Flight_Cessna_controls.

Since I wrote that article I've moved my sim gear into a smaller room where I don't have the space to have the yoke permanently set up, so I generally use the CH Products Fighterstick (now 10 years old). I've also gone back to using the CH Products pedals as the more upright angle works better for me as I'm sitting more upright.

-Stuart
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Re: Yoke vs stick

Postby jbaniqued » Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:52 pm

Thanks guys! I really do appreciate your guidance and help. With your info and some reviews (mixed) I have decided to order (Aug 15, delivery date conflict) a CH Eclipse Flight Sim Yoke. I have managed to do some ILS approaches (using a Cessna 337) at LAS, my home town airport. I'll continue to practice with my joystick. I'm also starting to learn about using the autopilot. The auto pilot on my PA 28-151 was rather simple so there is a learning curve, especially when considering I have to learn more about the Flight Gear Sim. Again, thanks for the help.
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