Flight Sim Yoke USB - review
I’ll prefix this entry with a disclaimer; I’m not a professional reviewer (if there is such a thing), CH Products didn’t pay me or provide my yoke at a discount and I don’t write many reviews. As such this is a raw collection of my thoughts and experiences with the CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB.
I’ll start with the packaging, which was solid and well thought out. It might seem silly to consider this but since it’s a somewhat specialized product, I suspect that the majority of people buying this will end up needing to have it shipped. The box offers good protection such that no part of the yoke touches the outer box so it is fairly safe to have this shipped and expect it to be completely undamaged upon arrival. My yoke was pretty much in perfect condition, though one of the long screws that holds the top and bottom of the base together had fallen out and was in the bottom of the box. All that was required was to screw that back in and all was well again.
The yoke looks and feels solid, though it is light enough that you can easily maneuver it around with one hand. The yoke has the equivilent of 12 buttons; 4 buttons, 2 up/down toggle buttons and 2 two-way rocker buttons. There’s also an 8-way ‘hat’ switch, basically a mini-joystick on the right side of the yoke. The yoke also has three levers; one for throttle, one for propellor and one for mixture. The yoke also has a trim wheel, that can either be used to adjust the yoke prior to use or as an actual trim wheel during flight.
When I plugged the yoke in my Linux kernel recognized it right away, though similar success with that will likely be dependent on having the proper modules compiled/built in. The next step is to attach the yoke to a surface of some kind (or you’ll get your little brother to sit beside you an hold it). The base of the yoke has two screw-driven clamps which allow you to firmly attach to yoke to your desk, coffee table or kitchen counter, so long as it’s an inch thick (the minimum the clamp will go).
I then loaded up FlightGear which had no issues handling the yoke’s inputs (I also happen to have a demo version of the latest X-Plane for Linux which also had no issues with the yoke). Flying around in a simulator with the Flight Sim Yoke USB is a complete treat, much more so I presume if you were a keyboard pilot prior. The first circuit I did using the yoke was the most realistic flying I’ve done in front of a computer. Of course, most of you probably all know this. For me, I haven’t used Microsoft Flight Simulator since I gave up Windows in 1995 (I played the original Flight Simulator from SubLogic). I didn’t mind since at the time Microsoft seemed to be worrying less about realism and more about ‘gaming’. Plus it didn’t run very well on my older computers. But in the past couple years I’ve been mucking around with FlightGear, using the keyboard only.
The main yoke action is as expected and has a realistic feel. The yoke is slightly spring loaded such that it returns to centre, but the actual centre is rather mushy. That is, if you move the yoke from it’s starting position and then release it, it doesn’t necessarily return exactly to where it was. This is more noticeable on the up/down axis than it is on the left/right. I think that this is likely by design to give a more realistic experience. I’ve read elsewhere that other people’s yokes have done the same so I don’t think it’s a flaw in mine.
I think the only thing I didn’t like about this yoke is placement of the three throttle levers. The levers are placed right behind the right-hand side of the yoke, which makes it a bit awkward to reach. That said, after a while you get used to their placement and work around it. And if you are using the twin or multi-engine throttle quadrant (sold separately from CH Products) then it’s a moot point.
Overall, the Flight Sim Yoke USB is a solid product, that I would easily recommend to anyone looking for a flight yoke to use with their flight simulator of choice.
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:41 Posted in Linux
