Years ago, when I first played Microsoft Flight Simulator, the only option to control the aircraft was to use the keyboard. It was great fun, but sometimes it would get a bit tiresome to search the manual for the correct key to press to control a particular function of the plane. The next step was to add a joystick to the controls. I remember pulling back on the joystick every so gently, and the thrill of being able to use a control other than the keyboard that was almost realistic to control the throttle, pitch, elevators and ailerons.

These days, if you are serious about your flight simulator experience, you could add a  high end graphics card, rudder pedals, headsets, joysticks or a yoke to create your own cockpit at home. All of these controls can plug into your favourite flight simulator software to make it a very realistic experience, but if you were to choose just one control to start with, I would say go for a flight simulator yoke.

Firstly, what is a flight simulator yoke? You will probably recognise one if you see it, but may not have known its name. It’s also known as the control wheel or column and it is used as a steering wheel is in a car to control a plane.  You can push it, pull it and turn it to control the plane and it will give you a feeling of what it is really like to pilot a plane.  Turning it will control the ailerons and make the plane roll to one side. Pushing or pulling it will control the elevators and will change the pitch of the aircraft, making the plan pull up or dive down.

Other controls in your aircraft can also be controlled by a flight simulator yoke. Instead of finding the right key on the keyboard to increase power, many flight simulator yokes allow you to also control the throttle, prop and mix. Also, flight simulator yokes come with a number of buttons and switches, that you can decide what they will be controlling.

If you are ready to make your flying experience more realistic and take a step up from using just the keyboard or joystick, a flight simulator yoke is a great option to increase the fun and enjoyment from your flight simulator.

Technorati Tags: flight simulator yoke, sim yoke

 Firstly the yoke, which is a pretty sturdy control with a metal shaft and smooth action. It also includes a number of buttons for assigning to controls and hat switches that can be programmed to switch your outside view.  Another feature of the Saitek yoke is the inbuilt LCD display, that can be used for checking the time or a more useful function, timing the legs of your flight. It also has a feature that may have been overlooked, mounting points. These mounting points can be used to attach up to 6 Saitek instrument panels.

These instrument panels are LCD displays that can be used for airspeed, vertical speed, compass, altimater, artificial horizon or as a turn coordinator. You can also start with only one and build up to 6. If you have less than 6, a toggle is included to switch the display to another control. The throttle also comes with one throttle quadrant to control the throttle. The throttle quadrants can also be purchased separately and as well as the throttle, control the propellor and mix.

The pedals are the final addition to this full setup and allow control of rudder and wheel brakes. A handy feature with the pedals is a tension adjuster to make the sliding back and forth easy or more difficult, simulating a real aircraft where you are actually pulling on wires.

Technorati Tags: flight simulator controls, flight simulator yoke, saitek proflight system, saitek yoke

In the 1930’s aircraft like the Tiger Moth were built with a joystick type of control. This was a very simple flight stick which could be pulled and pushed up and down and left and right and the joystick would be positioned between the pilot’s knees. The same type of control still exists today in some aircraft, some light aircraft, aerobatic planes and trainers.  Other types of planes such as military jets and large passenger jets have evolved the joystick into the flight stick. This device is a fly by wire (which means the controls are computerized and the controls are transmitted over wires and not manually by cables) control that more like the computer game joystick that we all know. The Airbus series of passenger jets is well known for using this kind of technology.

Many planes however have a flight yoke as the control column. Light aircraft such as the Cessna and large passenger jets such as the Boeing series all still use a flight yoke. The yoke is positioned in front of the pilot and can be controlled by either hand, as opposed to a flight stick that would need to be controlled on a certain side.

Saitek offer a number of flight simulator controls. Obviously the most important control in your virtual cockpit is the control column. Depending on the aircraft that you are flying this can be a flight stick or a yoke. Saitek offers both with futuristic sounding names such as the Cyborg flight stick or the more mundanely named Aviator. The flight stick is going to be the best choice if your aircraft of choice is one of the Airbus jets that has computer driven fly by wire flight or ’side’ sticks. Other aircraft that use a flight stick include military fighters, aerobatic planes and some trainers.

For the aircraft that have the common yoke in the cockpit, Saitek also offers the Pro Flight Yoke.  The Saitek yoke is designed to go together with the pro flight throttle quadrant. The quadrant gives three levers that can be used to control one or more throttles, or they can be assigned to any of the other controls such as flaps, gear or spoilers.

The Saitek pro flight rudder pedals complete your home cockpit. If you have the flight stick or yoke, the throttle quadrant and the rudder pedals you just about don’t need to touch the keyboard and mouse. Flying with these controls will start to give you a very realistic experience of flying an aircraft.

If you are looking to go to the ultimate in realism, Saitek also offer a number of panels that can be added to your flight gear. Perhaps the most impressive of all the controls are the instrument panels. These panels use a LCD panel to display one of altimeter, attitude indicator, airspeed, compass, vertical speed or turn and slip.

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You may not realise it, but these days some aircraft use the traditional flight yoke and some use a flight stick. In our home cockpit, we can match the flight yoke with a replica flight simulator yoke and match the flight stick with a joystick.

Although most passenger jets still use a yoke, there are a number of well known jets that have moved to a flight stick. The most famous example is the Airbus, that started the use of a flight stick or ’side stick’ as Airbus refer to them. Airbus have retained the side stick that uses the fly by wire technology with the more recent introduction of the giant A380.  The biggest competitor to Airbus, Boeing is sticking with the more traditional flight yoke, even in its latest models. Other types of aircraft that use a flight stick instead of a flight yoke include military jets including the F-16, aerobatic aircraft and some trainers.

Technorati Tags: flight simulator joystick, flight simulator yoke, flight stick

The most important point to consider if you should get a yoke or not is the aircraft that you are planning on flying. When I first started getting interested in flying and flight simulators, I was under the impression that all aircraft used a yoke or flight stick as it is also called. The earliest aircraft did actually use a control that is more of a joystick or flight stick than a yoke. The yoke came later and was used in most aircraft but not all. For example military aircraft, acrobatic aircraft and some training aircraft kept a flight stick. Even these days, aircraft use a combination of yokes and flight sticks. Perhaps one of the most well known uses of the joystick in the cockpit is in the airbus A320 and A340 passenger jets. Boeing is keeping with the yoke though and has no plans to change.

So, to choose between a yoke and a joystick is to know which aircraft you would like to fly. If you don’t know do your research and find out what control is in the cockpit of the aircraft that you would like to fly. If you can’t decide or don’t know if you would like to fly an Airbus or a Boeing aircraft, get one of each!