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AVSIM Commercial Hardware Review

Saitek Pro Flight System

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Product Information Publishers: Saitek Description: Commercial hardware for use with various flight simulators. Download Size: NA

Format: Hardware

Simulation Type: Any

Reviewed by: Benjamin van Soldt AVSIM Staff Reviewer - August 29, 2011 Introduction When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I got my first sim. It wasn’t because I had known about that sim, or because I really wanted it. I didn’t even know something like a flight sim existed for a “normal” home PC, but there it was: F/A-18 Hornet, by Graphsim. I started out with v1.0, then climbed up to v2.0. I recently discovered that there was also a v3.0, but I never had it, sadly, and my computer is now too “new” to play it. I do remember how I played all these combat sims though: with my mouse. Yes, I simply used the mouse to fly the aircraft. It worked for me, and it worked well. The mouse didn’t last, however. I got Falcon 4 in 1999 from a nephew of mine. I was happy until I discovered that you had to have a joystick in order to fly it. I was bummed, but fortunately my parents bought me a joystick for my birthday a month later. With that joystick, by Macally, I flew into the blue yonder (and got shot down all the time since I didn’t have the patience to read the manual). When I think about that time, I am somewhat surprised in a way, by my total lack of aviation knowledge. Oh well, I was only 11, so what could I possibly know about it?

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That joystick didn’t last forever, so when I was well into FS2004, somewhere in 2007, the joystick simply broke down. It worked, but the springs that kept it centered when not moved simply snapped. I then got another joystick for my 2007 birthday: the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. I personally think it’s a very good joystick and it still works very well. The aviation hobby industry has more to offer than just joysticks however. I knew about the existence of yokes, throttle quadrants and rudder pedals, but I had never actually seen them. That is, until the FSWeekend in Lelystad in 2010, where I stood at the Avsim booth together with Angelique van Campen and her partner. There I saw the yokes and I got to play with them a bit. I was instantly sold. I researched the yokes that were available, and ended up with the Saitek Pro Flight System line of simulation hardware, but there was a problem. Although there were reviews to be found, there was no single, comprehensive review on any actual flight sim site. So that is what I want to bring you: a comprehensive review about Saitek’s Pro Flight System line of hardware for use with whatever flight simulator you wish to use it for. For this review, I tested it with multiple simulators, although my primary sim is FSX. By the way, I do apologize for a small selection of the photographs. Some are out of focus – I only later saw that they were out of focus due to bad lighting indoors. Afterwards I turned on the flash. What’s in the box? When I received the boxes containing the various parts (pedals, quadrant and yoke), the pedals kindly offered by Simware and the rest received from the Aerosoft E-shop, I instantly went to unwrap them. The boxes are nicely made, and it’s absolutely clear what’s in them thanks to the vividly colored pictures on the front and the “manual” on the back:

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The hardware is well packed. In fact, when you open the box, all you see is more packaging:

Yoke box opened. And when you take the actual hardware out of the box, here’s what you get:

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Quadrant box opened.

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And finally, when you get all the stuff out of the box and spread on the floor, here’s the actual contents of these boxes:

So that’s unwrapping everything. It’s time to setup all the gear and look what it has to offer. The Yoke First of all: the yoke. The yoke that I got is actually a flight system by itself, because it includes one throttle quadrant. This quadrant is connected to the yoke via a serial port instead of a normal USB, but that’s no problem. When I got it out of the box, several things came to mind:

1. “Wow, that thing is big!” 2. “Ah, there’s a way to fasten it to the table.” 3. “Lots of buttons!” That describes most of what’s to be seen on this yoke. Because seeing is believing, I have included ample photographs for you to look http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (5 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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at. The captions contain a detailed description of what’s to be seen. About modes One thing I ought to mention is the “mode” system on the yoke. The yoke has several buttons, but thanks to the mode system, you can assign multiple functions to each button using the Saitek drivers. With the drivers you make a profile, and in this profile you assign a keyboard key to each button of the yoke. Because of this mode system, you can assign up to three keys per button. Then, when that specific profile is active, you can use the mode wheel on the yoke to switch between the various modes, and thus the function of the yoke buttons. It’s a very handy system and also very intuitive. More later about Saitek’s drivers and profile editor. And now for the promised screenshots. The yoke

An overview shot of the yoke: here’s what you’ll get. A cursory inspection shows several buttons on either side of the yoke, and what seems like a solid design for the case. A small screen and three buttons are placed on the front of the yoke.

From below there isn’t much to see, except a hole. I’ll come to that later.

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Looking from the top, we see the mostly plastic case of the yoke, but there is a metal strip with several well-placed screws that look sturdy and durable. The Saitek logo prominently features on this product!

The left view shows something interesting: a big red button on the back, left side of the yoke.

Same for the right side: what seems like a wheel has been placed at the back, on the right of the yoke. This is the mode wheel I already talked about previously.

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Seen from the front we get a good look at the two screens. Once plugged in, the screens turn green and display black numbers. The top, smaller screen shows the current mode you are in. The mode is changed using the mode wheel, positioned on the back, right side of the yoke. The second screen shows a clock. By default it displays your computer’s system time, but when you press the “function” button, it displays a stopwatch. You can start or stop it using the middle button. The right button is hard to read on the photograph, but it reads “reset”, and it simply resets the stopwatch. This is very handy for those that like navigating by hand. A nifty little addition!

Here’s something genius about this yoke: it has its own little USB hub. The serial port is for the throttle quadrant that you get with this combo package, and the other USB ports can be used for whatever other hardware you’d like to use. I, for example, plug in the extra throttle quadrant and my joystick. The pedals are connected via a separate USB hub, however.

On the left side of the yoke, we find a POV hat switch that can be moved in 8 directions. Next to it, we find a two-way http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (8 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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switch that I personally haven’t found a good use for, but it’s nice to have it. What’s important here, is that the buttons are very conveniently placed. My hands are medium-sized, and I can reach everything without effort.

On the right side of the yoke, there is a second button pad. We see a big red button that I tend to use to disconnect A/P, A/T or to enable TO/GA mode, depending on the mode the yoke is in. I use the vertical two-way switch for elevator trim, and the horizontal one for aileron trim. Just like the left button pad, it’s easy to reach all buttons and it’s generally very comfortable to use.

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This is the yoke’s mode wheel. It’s found at the back of the yoke, on the right side and enables you to switch modes so that buttons can have various functions, depending on the mode you are in. See the above explanation of modes for more information.

Fastening the yoke to your desk/table is very easy and makes sure that the yoke doesn’t start moving around the moment you wish to use it. The below screenshots show how you fasten it to the table:

See the hole in the yoke? There are two of them, one on each side. Here’s where the clamp is inserted with which you fasten the yoke to the table.

This is the clamp. It consists of roughly three parts: two vertical pieces that are inserted into the holes of the yoke itself, and a third part with which you fasten the yoke to the table. The latter is simply a screw that you keep fastening until the yoke is completely immobile and thus stuck to the table.

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The clamp again, viewed from a different angle.

When you first insert the clamp, this is its position. You have to take a bit of care, because there are two extrusions at the ends of the pieces you insert into the yoke. These function like a sort of “hook”, so that the clamp doesn’t “slide out” of the yoke.

Once the clamp is firmly in position, you can insert it into the yoke. All that remains now is to fasten it using the screw.

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After using the screw, the yoke is now stuck to the table and completely immobile, unless you start pulling it like a madman (not recommended).

In this photograph you can see how the yoke is fastened below the table. The screw is firmly turned against the table, so the yoke can’t move anymore.

This concludes the Yoke. In my opinion, the Saitek yoke is a marvel of design, sporting a mindset oriented towards the simmer. Fastening to the table couldn’t be easier. Multitudes of well-placed buttons make it possible to simulate many of the vital key presses that you’d need on a real plane, and thanks to the mode wheel, you can even triple the amount of assignments you wish to have. A small, but extremely satisfying detail, is that the label for the mode wheel is written upside down! They apparently thought correctly about the fact that when people first find this strange wheel, they are most probably going to look for it by bending over the yoke, and thus seeing the text at the mode wheel upside down! This is what I call customer-oriented thinking and I greatly commend Saitek for it. For the rest, there is a clock that lights up and doubles as a stopwatch. Last but not least, the yoke sports its own tiny USB hub, enabling you to plug your entire Saitek Pro Flight System into the yoke, thus freeing up USB ports in your computer, which might be needed for other USB devices. I find that this yoke is packed with details that show how great it has been put together and I’m very impressed by it. Question remains, how is it to use the yoke? I have dedicated a separate chapter for that, so continue reading on. The throttle quadrant http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (12 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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In this review I give a look at two throttle quadrants: the one that came with the Yoke and a separate one. The quadrant that came with the yoke is connected to the yoke via a standard serial plug. As such, you have to plug it into the yoke’s special serial port in order to use this quadrant. The other, separately packaged yoke has a USB connector. For convenience I plugged this one into the yoke’s USB hub, but you can plug it into any USB port you wish. Note that besides the different plugs, the two quadrants are exactly the same! I will continue this chapter using a host of photographs plus descriptions of those photographs. That seemed the easiest way of discussing the hardware product.

Contents of the box. We find the quadrant, various lever handles, a disc containing the drivers, a clamp to attach the quadrant to our desk (including some screws and such), and a warranty card.

The clamp has been constructed. The idea is that you attach the main part of the clamp with screws to the quadrant. There are several positions in which you can fasten it to the quadrant proper, one of which can be seen in the photograph. For the rest the clamp works exactly like the clamp of the yoke. The clamp features a same kind of hole through which the second part of the clamp goes. You then fasten the quadrant firmly against the table using the screw-like part of the clamp.

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In this photograph the quadrants have been fastened to the table. As you can see, it’s the same system as with the yoke, except that the clamp is fastened to the quadrant with screws. The system works very well and is easy to construct and use.

The quadrants have now been mounted on the table and are ready for use. There are various handles for the levers included, and it’s easy to switch them if you want. In this photograph I have added one of each. Do note that you see both quadrants mounted here next to each other! Do not make the mistake of thinking that one yoke has six levers!

Here I placed different lever handles. The idea is that the left red one is a spoiler lever, the black ones are throttle levers (for engines 1 through 4, so you can fly just about every plane using this configuration) and the last red one is for flaps.

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Now let’s take a look at the various buttons and levers. As you can see, each quadrant has three levers and 3 buttons. Is that really so, though? No, there are six buttons! First the levers: each one moves freely and easily. Percentages along the movement slot of the lever give a hint as to how much the lever has been moved. Finally, the lowest part of the lever’s slot has red lines, as you can see on the photograph. This isn’t by accident of course: This part of the slot acts like a button. Moving the lever into this position (which requires just a little bit of force, as if you are pressing a button) actives the “button” function. The “button” is depressed once you take the lever out of the red area. The six buttons are just that, buttons. I personally have found no good use for them, sadly, but having such a wide variety of buttons is of course very nice. Also note the green lamp at the lower left corner of each quadrant: it lights up when the quadrant receives power and is ON.

Last thing I want to show is the side of the quadrant. As you can see, there is this weird, protruding circle. It’s not at all useless, however! Every quadrant has this circle on the RIGHT side, and on the LEFT side there is a bulged-in circle. The result is that you can fit this circle precisely into the bulged-in circle of a second quadrant, thus aligning them perfectly, easing operation of multiple throttle levers spread out over multiple quadrants. Clever thinking!

This concludes the throttle quadrant. With a sturdy design, easily moveable levers including a button function, the prime function of the quadrant is easily fulfilled with great success. This is truly a good product. The six buttons below the levers are more or less a bonus to me, and they are a welcome addition. Overall, a good quadrant, well worth having if you want to move to something more realistic for jetliners and propliners than the keyboard or a joystick’s throttle lever. The rudder pedals The final piece of equipment I will be looking at are the Saitek rudder pedals. Let me describe it by the use of photographs, although in essence there isn’t too much to see. There aren’t any buttons to look at and the design is rather straight forward.

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Once we unpack everything, here’s what we get: The pedals themselves, booklets and a disc with drivers, two black, two plastic extensions, and strips that add a lot of friction to the pedals lower surface so it doesn’t slide too much on slippery floors.

A close-up overview of the pedals. The design is both chique and basic at once. It has no buttons but contains everything it has to have. With the nice metallic piece in the middle it gives an airliner hint and looks heavy, while it isn’t heavy by the least. The two footrests are placed relatively far apart, making it comfortable to place your feet on it. In the middle we see the only actual “button”: it’s a knob that enables you to set the tension of the footrests.

One of the footrests of the pedal. I apologize for the dust… The footrest is a comfortable design that provides good grip for your feet, and has a good angle with the floor. Also, you can adjust the length of the footrest. Upon pushing down the little metal circle you see, you can move the upper part of the footrest and place it in one of three preconfigured slots. This way nobody should have a problem with too big or too small feet, unless you’re a kid or have insanely big feet. Note that the pedals include a toe brake function. They work like on the normal plane. Simply push forward with your toes, keeping the rest of your feet in place. The footrest will then tilt forward slightly and activate the toe brakes (that is, if you set them up to be toe brakes. You don’t have to set them that way, but it’s the most logical assignment when using them, for flying planes).

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The knob you see in this photograph shows the tension knob: turn it to increase or decrease the tension on the footrests. Increasing the tension will make it harder to push the footrests. Decreasing the tension will make it easier.

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The back of the pedals. Not much to see here, except for the tracks in which the footrests, the actual pedals, move back and forth. It’s a good design and sturdy design. Also notice the holes for the screws you see here. More about this later.

And now the pedals are ready for use. Setting them is easy. Basically, you can just plug and play without having to place any clamp or whatever. However, many people, including myself, will have floors on which the pedals will move around if enough force is applied. To this end, Saitek included two solutions: the two black, plastic extensions have holes through which you can put screws. The back of the pedals (see previous photograph) also has such holes. Thus you can effectively screw the pedals to the ground. The other, less destructive solution is by means of two strips. You fasten these to the lower side of the pedals. No glue is required. These strips then add a lot of friction so that the pedals can’t move.

While I have shown most of the pedals, there some hidden things that aren’t readily noticeable;

1. The pedals are connected to the computer using a USB plug. 2. A blue light at the bottom left of the grey/metallic part will light up once the pedals receive enough power to operate. This concludes the pedals. I have found that they are a joy to use and they are easy to set up. It’s pretty much plug and play. The adjustments you can do for the tension is a very welcome addition, and I like how there are multiple ways to make sure the pedals do not slide around the room when you are using it. Note that I did find the strips friction adding capabilities wear off a bit too quickly, but fortunately not enough for them to become useless. The most reliable way of fastening the pedals is and will always be using screws to a base plate. Overall, the pedals are also a good product that I enjoy using. The Saitek drivers and profile editor Now that we have looked at all of the various hardware modules, it’s time to look at the software they come with. Note that the software http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (18 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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isn’t necessary for successful use of the hardware, but it enables functions that otherwise would remain unused. One of these functions is the mode wheel on the yoke, which I have come to regard as one of the best ideas I have seen on hardware. It won’t work without the profile editor and the Saitek drivers. Admittedly, the drivers themselves are not the most interesting part, and to be honest this is not the part you really need. The hardware works great without them. The most interesting part is the profile editor (but note that the drivers have to be installed for the profile editor to be of use). This is the central place for you to configure buttons, levers, and switches, etc. More about this later however, because first we’ll look at what happens when you plug in the equipment. If you have not installed the drivers, Windows will look for drivers using Windows update, and you can then use the software without even touching the Saitek drivers. However, suppose you did install them, then after Windows has finished installing the drivers it found (even though, technically, they aren’t really required), you will see new tray icons: The left one signifies that the Saitek yoke is plugged in and that a profile is active. There is no active profile for the quadrant however, which is the right icon. Therefore it doesn’t have the green block. If you were to unplug the hardware, the icons would disappear altogether. I didn’t install the pedal drivers, otherwise a pedals icon would also appear. Saitek hardware tray icons.

The tray icons enable you to access a menu. The menu is your easy access point to all the profile related functions and control panel.

Let’s go over what we see. The top-most entry is the active profile. As you can see, the active profile is called “FS2004 Saitek Yoke”. You can of course give it any name you want and at the moment I primarily use the profile in FSX. FS2004 is just the name I gave it when I made it. Note that in effect EVERY profile you make is going to be in this list. I have made only one profile, so you only see one profile in the list. It is certainly NOT the case that only the active profile appears in the list! However, the active profile does have a box around it, the rest do not. The second entry is “Clear profile”. What it does NOT do, is delete the profile. What it DOES do, is deactivate the current profile. This enables you to quickly switch to another profile if you so desire. The third entry is “Clear startup”. Notice the flag icon of the FS2004 Saitek Yoke profile: it means that this particular profile will be loaded automatically when the hardware is plugged in.

Tray icon menu opened.

Using this menu entry, you can clear the current profile from being loaded at startup. Note that when I say “on startup”, I mean the moment you plug in the hardware as opposed to when you start up Windows! The next entry is “Profile editor” and it does exactly what it says. It simply starts up the profile editor, which we will look at in more detail later. The next entry gives access to the driver’s control panel. The last two entries give access to the Saitek website and close the menu respectively. Using profiles http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (19 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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Before we move on, I want to look at profiles a bit more in-depth. I have mentioned them on and off now several times and I fully understand if you might be a bit confused, so that’s why I wrote this special sub chapter. Clear and simple, the use of profiles is to define a set of instructions, or assignments, for buttons on your hardware that are exchangeable. What does this mean? It means that assignments you set up are not “locked”, causing you to have to manually change them every time you want to use a different sim, or perhaps fly a different plane. Instead, you assign them in a separate file, and depending on your current use of the hardware (think of combat vs. civilian flight sim) you can exchange these files so that the assignments are different for the various sims you use with this hardware. The profile system is an intelligent, intuitive, fast and easy way to define lots of buttons for a wide variety of sims/games without having to do much, tedious work. So that’s what a profile is. How does it work? The way it works is rather simple. There are a few things we have to keep apart, however:

1. An active profile is a profile that currently defines the button assignments on your hardware modules. 2. An inactive or deactivated profile is a profile that doesn’t currently define the button assignment on your hardware modules. It exists on your computer, but it is not used to define buttons use.

By default, a profile is inactive. It can be activated in two ways:

1. Manually by choosing it to be the active profile in the Profile Editor or by selecting it in the tray icon menu. 2. Automatically by assigning a profile to be loaded whenever the hardware is plugged in. How do you know when a profile is active? You can easily access that information by opening the tray icon menu of your hardware device. In the menu, in the list of the profiles, you will see a box around the active profile. When a profile is loaded that has assignments for a hardware module, a green block will appear on the tray icon. You can see this in the screenshot of the tray icons, above. You can see that there are the tray icons for a yoke and one throttle quadrant. The yoke has a green block, denoting a profile has been loaded for the yoke. The quadrant doesn’t have this, however. This means that no profile was loaded. Note that you can activate different profiles for each hardware module. I can use one profile for the yoke, but activate another profile on the quadrant. The only caveat is that there should be an assignment for at least one button, otherwise the profile won’t load for that hardware module. Finally, as I said, it is possible to assign a profile that would be made active upon hardware module plug-in (“on startup”). This profile is “flagged”, or in other words, receives a flag icon denoting its status of being activated on startup. You can choose what profile should be activated on startup. Since I only have one profile, for me the choice was rather easy. You can of course, using the menu or the profile editor program itself, deactivate an active profile and activate another profile. You can also change the profile to be activated on startup at any time. To set a profile as a startup profile, right click the profile name in the tray icon menu of the controller, and choose “Set as startup profile”. I hope this clears everything up. Now it’s time to look into how you actually make a profile; by using the profile editor of course! http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (20 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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The profile editor There are two ways to open the profile editor: by using Windows Explorer and navigating to the folder in which the profile editor resides (or you can look it up via the windows start menu. A folder in the start menu is automatically created), or you open it by using the hardware modules tray icons. Note however, that a tray icon only appears when the hardware module is actually plugged in. If you wish to make a profile without any hardware modules being plugged in, you will have to navigate to the profile editor using the start menu or Windows Explorer. The above shot shows the profile editor without a profile loaded. It might look confusing at first, but I’ll tell you it is not. There are several buttons along the top of the screen and a pull down menu. These buttons are to respectively Make a new profile. Profile editor’s main screen – no profile loaded.

Open an existing profile.

Save the current profile. the arrow next to the save icon gives access to two more options:

1. Simply save 2. “Save as…” A drop down menu through which you can choose the hardware module to assign buttons for. A “profile” button that activates the currently selected profile for the controller selected in the drop-down menu. A button so you can print the currently displayed profile. A help icon which will bring up the help document/user guide. The area you see that contains all kinds of boxes is where you’ll be assigning all the buttons with all kinds of functions. As an example, see the screenshot right. This is the FS2004 Saitek Yoke profile: It’s are For It’s

the same screen again, Except that the lower large area is different. As you can see, there three columns. This is due to the mode wheel, which enables you to select a certain mode. each mode, you can assign a different function for each button, which is exactly what I did. very easy to do this, too.

I will not go into much detail since you can do a lot using the profile editor, but I hope to have given you at least a basic overview of what’s possible. The user guide covers all the possible options. Note that drivers and the user guide are freely downloadable from the Saitek website http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (21 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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download section. Using the Saitek Pro Flight System

Profile editor – FS2004 Saitek Yoke profile loaded

Now that you’ve got a taste of the hardware modules themselves and the software you get with it, let’s look now at how it actually works. The actual use starts with assigning buttons. These are the ground rules for assigning buttons to these hardware modules. In general, it is recommended to always use the simplest method:

1. Assign buttons within your game of choice. 2. If that’s not possible for one reason or another, assign via related programs that extend the default game’s functionality (FSUIPC for example, for Flight Simulator).

3. If that also doesn’t give you exactly what you wish, use the software that came with your hardware module, being the Profile Editor in this particular case. For the yoke’s mode wheel, you have no choice but to use the Profile Editor.

As for me, I did the bulk of assigning via a mixture of the default FSX Settings panel and FSUIPC. See, FSX itself (and FS2004 for that matter) can be very limited in what it offers. For simple key assignments it is great, but for anything more advanced, you’ll want to use something else: FSUIPC. FSUIPC is good because it’s so nicely integrated with FS. While all normal key presses were done via FS’s default controller settings panel, all levers and handles were done via FSUIPC. Why? Because of this:

1. The default axis assignment doesn’t give you many options regarding calibration. Sure you can calibrate, but not quite in the way

that FSUIPC does. FSUIPC gives you the option to actually set a range for the levers. You give it a maximum position and a minimum position. FSUIPC then determines where the lever is and thus the output value to FS. For me this is ideal – better than what the default FS does. This is also the reason I use FSUIPC for the flaps and spoilers. 2. FSUIPC uses profiles in the most recent versions. Like with the Saitek Profile Editor, this ensures huge versatility, because you can choose a profile for every plane you fly. Thus you can have four throttle handles for your 747, yet have two throttles for the 737, and a throttle, condition and mixture lever for your Cessna, without having to change the assignments all the time, as would be the case if you would have assigned them within FS itself. 3. FSUIPC is more versatile regarding levers. It simply has some very handy functions that FS doesn’t have. One of these is the option for an action to happen one a button is depressed. This is the way I made reverse thrust. Remember how the throttle quadrant has a red-striped part along each lever slot? This is the area of a button. On button press, you can assign FSUIPC to activate reverse thrust. Upon taking the lever out of the red area, which depresses the button, you can assign it to idle thrust. Thus, when you enter the red area and keep the lever in that position, reverse thrust will be engaged, and when you take it out, the engines will return to idle thrust. Works great! Once you get everything assigned in whatever combination of programs that suits you, you can finally start flying. The button assigning can take a long time and is rather tedious, but it’s the basis for later enjoyment. Sitting on the tarmac at Lelystad EHLE in the Netherlands, I was ready for my first circuit using this equipment. I moved the throttle lever forward, and was happy with how smooth it went. It’s a very precise piece of apparatus and it’s very nice to use. The plane started moving forward, slowly started to pull to the left. I kicked in some rudder… and the plane went all the way to the left. It appeared I had to get used to this. Apparently I had to kick the rudder the other way. After some practicing that wasn’t much of a problem and I took off without further problems. Then the next surprise came: flying with a yoke is actually harder than a joystick. http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (22 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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With a joystick, every slight input does something. The range of motion of a joystick also isn’t very big and my joystick tended to cause instant changes in the airplanes flight path. All in all, flying with the joystick was rather easy because of this “instantaneous character”. Every input had immediate consequences. The yoke was a completely different story, however. Contrary to the joystick, the yoke doesn’t cause equal movement along its entire rotational path. So, for example, if I were to rotate the yoke to the left a bit, the plane wouldn’t react too much. Move it left more, the plane would react suddenly and roll over too much. I tried to picture this behavior in the graph illustrated:

Graph showing the amount of movement made with the hardware module to either the left or the right, correlated with the rolling movement the plane makes.

Let me explain the graphs. You see two: the left one is for the Saitek yoke, the right one for the Logitech joystick I own. The line in the middle of each graph is the centerline: the neutral positions of the yoke and the joystick. At this position, both yoke and joystick give no input and the plane flies straight and level. The bold lines that are drawn show how the plane reacts to you turning the yoke and joystick. For the joystick these are straight lines: the plane’s rolling is equal to the amount of stick input you give. For the yoke this doesn’t seem to be the case. At first its rolling movement is less than the input you give, and at later stages it seems to be a lot more, which really requires practice in order to perfect your hand flying.

I’m not sure if my difficulties with the yoke are because I have used the joystick for so long, or because something is wrong in the way I setup the yoke, although I’d go with the first explanation. Anyway, it gives for some very nice practice, and in the end once I got used to it, flying with the yoke proved great. It feels much nicer, much more realistic than the joystick, keyboard or mouse and has greatly enhanced my enjoyment of flying. The buttons on the yoke are well-placed and of great use, especially the mode wheel. It really enables you to assign some very important functions to some pretty important buttons. For example (refer to the photographs of the yoke here, please), the red E and D buttons are exactly the sort of buttons that work great for autopilot and autothrottle related functions, such as TOGA or autopilot disengage. Being able to assign not less than three different functions to these buttons is therefore very valuable. You only have to remember at what mode a button has a certain function. Fortunately, the profile editor enables you to print out the key assignments, as you saw in the Profile Editor chapter. Also the rocker switches (termed A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1, C2) are of great use. B1/2 and C1/2 are used on my setup for elevator and aileron trim respectively. Their position for this is excellent and I couldn’t have wished to have them on another place. Last but not least, the clock on the yoke can be of great use. Thanks to its stopwatch function, you can time your flights. Start it at takeoff, stop it after landing. The clock itself is also of great use, because it’s nice to be able to keep track of the actual time while flying in virtual time. The great thing is that you can use them interchangeably. While the stopwatch is running, you can switch over to the clock by using the Mode button to check actual time, and then switch back to the stopwatch. Need to go to the bathroom and want to pause FS? No problem: you can simply stop the stopwatch until you resume the sim. I should note one problem I have with the yoke: it seems to have a slight bias toward the left. So even if the yoke is in a neutral position, the plane rolls to the left. This can be easily corrected by properly calibrating the yoke, but you might have to go through this http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (23 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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procedure more often than you’d probably want. The throttle quadrants are also a great enhancement. Sitting on one of the runways with a 747, and advancing the levers of the four engines gives you a glimpse of the feeling you’d probably have when flying the real thing. I don’t tend to use this word too often, but flying with these throttle quadrants is nothing less than awesome. Having the spoiler and flaps levers is also a huge enhancement to my enjoyment and I tend not to want to fly without them anymore. They are precise, easy to use, intuitive and lots of fun. Using the tiny throttle lever on my joystick simply is completely inferior to these quadrants, and I only use it on short test flights, for example for when I do a scenery review and don’t feel like setting up all the Saitek hardware reviewed here. Does this mean I don’t use the joystick at all? No. I do use the joystick in two circumstances:

1. When doing test flights, either to quickly check out a new product (aircraft or scenery) or to fly over a scenery I need to review. When using the joystick in this situation, it’s mostly laziness that holds me form using the Saitek hardware.

2. When flying an Airbus plane. Nobody says you can’t use the joystick and yoke interchangeably. So, since I have both, I don’t see a

reason not to use both. For planes that have a yoke, I use the Saitek yoke, for those that have a control stick, I use my joystick. Note that I do tend to use the modes and associated button assignments of the Saitek yoke, even if I do use the joystick for actual flying.

Note that in all situations I still use the pedals and throttle quadrants. The pedals are more or less the same story. They enhance my flying experience greatly by adding a new dimension to the realism of the simulation. It takes some practice to get to know them, but you’ll end up not wanting anything else for rudder control. I typically switched the rudder axis on my joystick, because the rudder pedals are more practical to use. That you can adjust the tension of the pedals (how hard it is to move them with your feet) is also a great asset and makes it possible to fly the easy-on-rudder modern planes such as the 777 or 767, as well as the hard-on-rudder 707 with much greater realism. The only problem I have is that the strips that should add greater friction so that the pedals don’t move around the room when you apply pressure with your feet, wore off after a few months. They still supply enough friction, but I’m a bit disappointed that it wore off so quickly. On the bright side, the addition of toe brakes is something of a must for those that require utmost realism from their jetliners. Aircraft such as the PMDG 747, PMDG 737NGX, LDS767 and others that can have overheated brakes on landing will find that the on/off kind of braking system that a button press will employ will give their planes overheated brakes a bit too often. Using toe brakes, you can chose the amount of brake you want, thus greatly reducing the risk of a brake overheat. As an aside, because each pedal has its own toe brake, differential braking has never been much more intuitive than when using rudder pedals, be it the Saitek ones or others that employ that feature. Overall, the pedals are a great hardware module that make your flights more realistic and more enjoyable. Summary / Closing Remarks I can say very easily that I love the Saitek hardware reviewed here. You receive it in professional http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (24 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

Test System

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packaging in several pieces, but don’t worry: assembling won’t take you long and it’s very easy to do. The instructions are clear, but quite frankly, it’s so intuitive that I didn’t really even need the instructions to begin with. When everything is finally setup on your desk, installing the Saitek drivers is a breeze. Getting to know the Profile Editor and the logic behind it might take some more time, but thanks to a comprehensive user guide you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Setting up the hardware to allow actual flying in FS is easy, if a bit tedious. Using the controller section of the FS settings tab, you can set everything up the way you like it, but I really recommend FSUIPC for more advanced stuff (note that it’s a payware product if you want to use it to its utmost potential, though there is also a very limited free version). FSUIPC comes with a huge manual and Peter Dowson, the developer, is a friendly guy that will help you if you should run into trouble. As I said, I use a mix of the Saitek profile Editor, default FS assignments and FSUIPC assignments.

Computer Specs Windows 7 64 bit FS2004 v9.1/FSX/DCS A-10C Intel i5 Quad @2,79 GHz ATI HD5750 4GB RAM DDR3 Flight Test Time: 60 hours

The actual flying with the hardware is great. All the equipment is of good quality and seems sturdy enough to keep working for a long time. The yoke has been intelligently put together, with firm hand grips and buttons that are placed at exactly the right spots. The mode wheel is one of the single most useful additions I have seen to a hardware module and I use it fanatically to switch between button assignments “on the fly” (sorry for the pun). The clock is also a great thing. The only pity is that the yoke seems to have a slight bias for the left, but it’s easily solved by calibrating it properly. If calibration via FS fails, you can always resort to calibration within FSUIPC. The throttle quadrant is just as easy to setup as it’s fun to use. Being able to move actual levers instead of ramming the keyboard or moving a depressingly little thing on a joystick is an enormous joy. Like the yoke, the throttle quadrant is very versatile in that you can replace the handles on the levers to suit the function you gave it (throttle, mixture or condition lever). It’d be neat if flaps and spoiler handles would also be included, but those that feel creative could easily make their own using some packaging material, for example Styrofoam would probably work very well. The levers move fluidly and the addition of a button-like region can be very nicely converted in to a reverse thrust region with some help of FSUIPC. Like the yoke, the throttle quadrant is also a great asset and a very addition to your simming. Third and last, the pedals. They are easy to setup and require hardly any fiddling. Only the toe brakes might have you going back and forth in the FS settings tab. Other than that, it’s nice that Saitek included multiple ways to make sure that there is added friction between the pedals and floor, even if the friction strips didn’t hold out for as long as I had hoped. The pedals themselves are adjustable, making it easy for many to fit their legs on them. The fact that the tension can be adjusted is also really nice. Overall, the pedals complement the yoke and throttle quadrant in a great way. What about the price? Well, any hardware is going to be expensive, and really inexpensive flightsim hardware (except for joysticks) is hard to come by. However, taking into account everything you get for the price, I think the Saitek pro Flight System really is quite reasonable. A rundown of prices at the Simware Simulation Store (all at the time of writing, regular prices, no discounts):

1. Yoke + quadrant: 150 Euros. 2. Extra quadrant: 60 Euros. 3. Pedals: 130 Euros. http://www.avsim.com/pages/0811/Saitek/Hardware.html (25 of 27)29/08/2011 5:51:09 PM

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4. Complete set, in one package (yoke + 1 quadrant + pedals): 218 Euros. Basically, if you want the exact setup that I have, you’ll pay round about 280 Euros. With this setup you can then fly just about any plane you want. My final verdict is that this Saitek setup is simply very good and the price is right. All the pieces complement each other and I assure you that your flying will seldom be the same as before. Of all simmers, those that tend to fly low and slow will see the biggest use of the hardware, though I can assure you that using the yoke and quadrants to navigate a fully loaded 747 into a stormy Kai Tak will be an awesome experience.

What I Like About Saitek's Pro Flight System ● ● ● ● ●

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Very easy to setup and use; Clear instructions; The profile editor is a great tool to program the hardware modules’ buttons; Sturdy design of all hardware modules, seems very durable; Yoke comes with its own small USB hub: great to use as a plug-in hub for all the Saitek hardware reviewed here! Yoke and throttle quadrant have a lot of buttons; Buttons are intuitively placed; The yoke’s mode button offers some great versatility in button assignment and use; The placement of a clock on the yoke is a very nice addition; The throttle quadrants offer well-moving levers with replaceable handles offering you a wired variety of functions for the levers; The throttle quadrant has the great addition of a button function below the “idle” state of the lever, offering reverse thrust function when programmed correctly in FSUIPC; Pedals enable you to set the tension of their movement, which is another great addition; Easy to use and comprehensive profile manager. Relatively cheap!

What I Don't Like About Saitek's Pro Flight System

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Yoke seems to have a bias towards the left. Pedals’ grip on the ground wore off a bit too fast.

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