Which yoke to buy...?

[pilotwannabe]

That sure is one mean looking yoke WJH308. I've got more experience working wood than metal, so something with the sturdiness of the steel and aluminium is a dream just now.

I ordered the Saitek yoke and pedals last week with the 3 Horizon England and Wales VFR scenery packs, Alderney VFR, SimPlatesX, and a wee book about British Airband frequencies. They haven't arrived yet, due to the yoke being out of stock, so I'm hoping for the latter half of this week.

I also checked out Skylane's pit - awesome! I see that most of it is off-the-shelf components (Saitek, VRinsight) but it's really effective. That gives me something to aspire to. Well done Nico.

Michelle - it annoys me too the fact that one piece of kit plugs into another using non-USB connecters. My X52 stick plugs into the throttle unit with a DIN plug, and the throttle has a USB plug.

You also mentioned learning to fly. I'd gone through the missions on FSX slowly picking up "flight experience", thinking it was quite easy until I started reading things about ILS NDB DME STARS VOR stuff I'd never heard about (What is it with abbreviations?).
"Obviously", I thought, "there's more to this flying lark than just doing missions". It was about then that I found the Flight School section. (So THAT'S what "Angle of Attack" is!)
This is where I'm at now - back at the beginning with about 200 hours flight time under my belt. Duuuhh!! And this is where the yoke will be most useful. The stick will come back out if I decide I want to try out helicopters again

Now, maybe a good book on flight instruction...

[Skylane]

Thank you Pilotwannabee for your kind words. My pit is at a starting point right now.

The "sloppyness around the center" for the yokes is mostly due to settings in FS. Default settings in the control panel set quite some dead-zone in the center for the X and Y axes. Simply reducing the dead zones and raising sensitivity will give a lot better response.

Just pure airodynamics..... there is not much response with minor movement of the controll surfaces in a real (and RC model) plane.

Kind regards, Nico

[WJH308]

I originally got into machining because I wanted to build a live steam locomotive. A project that I am still working on and very passionate about. As I learned to use lathes and mills, I have applied metalworking to everything I build. I enjoy metalworking much more than flying the real thing. In fact it seams I fly the airplane so I have money to go home and play in the workshop for fun.

The Saitek or CH yoke will work just fine. The electronics inside of a CH yoke, although better than saitek, still can fail. In fact the electronics inside of my CH yoke DID! I replaced the electronic guts with one of Leo's 10 bit usb joystick controllers. Since I still had 3 axis's left, I even ripped the guts out of the CH pedals and rewired them to plug into the back of my yoke and to take advantage of Leo's board. This free'd up a USB port on my computer, and allows older programs that can only see one joystick the use of the pedals and yoke. I still have to design the base of the L1011 yoke, and figure out where the pots will go and the linkages. All of this is going to have to wait as next week I am driving out to Oakland, California, where my new base is... No workshop out there, hopefully won't last too long.

[WJH308]

Thank you Pilotwannabee for your kind words. My pit is at a starting point right now.

The "sloppyness around the center" for the yokes is mostly due to settings in FS. Default settings in the control panel set quite some dead-zone in the center for the X and Y axes. Simply reducing the dead zones and raising sensitivity will give a lot better response.

Just pure airodynamics..... there is not much response with minor movement of the controll surfaces in a real (and RC model) plane.

Kind regards, Nico

The C210 I fly has very little dead band in roll and pitch. However It is very sensitive to the smallest movements. I can simply apply just enough pressure so you can't even see the yoke move, and the airplane will react accordingly in stable air.

[Skylane]

WJH308, I could not agree with you more... nor would I like to argue with you.

All depends on Reynolds numbers, airfoils, airspeed, mechanic or electronic controlsurface drive, fly by steel- or electic-wire and so on.
But never the less, in the "old days" one used to speak of an elevator .. a moving part of the stabilizer... now a days the whole stabilizer moves plus and minus 30 degrees to goal the right responce of the airplain.... this is getting off topic

[WJH308]

WJH308, I could not agree with you more... nor would I like to argue with you.

All depends on Reynolds numbers, airfoils, airspeed, mechanic or electronic controlsurface drive, fly by steel- or electic-wire and so on.
But never the less, in the "old days" one used to speak of an elevator .. a moving part of the stabilizer... now a days the whole stabilizer moves plus and minus 30 degrees to goal the right responce of the airplain.... this is getting off topic

Now that is a very interesting topic in itself. The C210 has the elevator, the L1011 has the full flying stab, etc. The control "feeling" the pilot feels could either be aerodynamic or simply a representation of a computed force. With the bigger stuff that would be the case. At Miami Dade College, they have two C90 beech sims. Both of them use the control loading computer from a Fokker 100 for controlling the force feedback. In one of the sections of the faa regulations, I think part 25... describes the max control wheel pressures. This is now hazy in my memory, but I want to say 25lbs as being the max force a pilot should feel on the yoke. The technology is quite interesting, but at the same time a little sad on just how far removed the pilot is becoming from his airplane.

[Skylane]

WJH308....Like I said... this is getting off topic... off topic big time

[litebkt]

"Obviously", I thought, "there's more to this flying lark than just doing missions". It was about then that I found the Flight School section. (So THAT'S what "Angle of Attack" is!)
This is where I'm at now - back at the beginning with about 200 hours flight time under my belt. Duuuhh!! And this is where the yoke will be most useful. The stick will come back out if I decide I want to try out helicopters again

Now, maybe a good book on flight instruction...

I'm pretty sure this is why we hold airline pilots in high esteem After learning to hang glide several years ago, I gained a whole lot more admiration for those who I used to call bus drivers in the sky.

Michelle

[pilotwannabe]

I'm pretty sure this is why we hold airline pilots in high esteem After learning to hang glide several years ago, I gained a whole lot more admiration for those who I used to call bus drivers in the sky.

Michelle

LOL! http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/show...7819#post97819

[pilotwannabe]

Just an update

My Saitek yoke, throttle & rudders arrived yesterday and I'm currently in the process of trying to get used to them. It's so much different from using a stick!

The rudder pedals do indeed slide all over the carpet, but they come supplied with self-adhesive velcro strips which you can attach to the bottom. Using just the "hooks" part helps it stay in place without moving too much. I haven't attached it yet though. I'm thinking of using a couple of those carpet gripper strips across the underside of the pedals which would save putting the velcro on the bottom or putting screw holes through the carpet and into the floor. This would just be a temporary measure until I got a separate construction underway for the cockpit.

Another thing is I underestimated the size of the yoke. It's quite big to remain attached to the desk in front of my keyboard all the time, and using the PC with it attached is inconvenient to say the least.There is a lot to be said for a dedicated flight sim computer!

It does seem well made (bearing in mind the warnings from Nico (Skylane) and WJH308 about the wiring) and sits quite nicely in the hands, putting elevator and rudder trim within easy reach. There is some "slop" about the centre, but then the X52 I used had this as well to some degree. Perhaps adjusting the nulls in settings would help this, but then again, it isn't a ferrari I'm driving here. (Other luxury sports cars are available). I'm still taking lessons in the Cessna - back to the beginning AGAIN!
I'll just have to be happy with it until I get around to building my own yoke.
The throttles are also sufficient for my purposes at the moment.

What's different from the X52? Well, using throttle with my right hand instead of the left, and the HAT switch with my left thumb instead of my right will take getting used to, as will the trim switches. Just like the stick though, it will come to me.