FS2000 flight controls

new december 2000: incredible console...

Yokes

CH products released the left top one in October 2000 (USB version with mixture control) . For sale in the USA for about $149.Good value for money. Available in Europe at Flightsimcentral . Online ordering possible.

The middle one is a $500 professional trainer Yoke made by Cirrus. I am sure it will feel like $500.....It's fully FS98/FS2000 compatible.

At the right you see the in September 1999 released $500 AFCS-II heavy-duty yoke & power lever (power lever not shown) This webmaster is using this yoke and it is the best one available for sure! Extremely solid and realistic. Cast from a real SAAB 340 Airliner Yoke. All metal construction. Satin black powdercoat finish. More information available at Aeti's site. Read a review. You can order this one too directly at FlightSimCentral.

If you really want to have the most exclusive yoke, order this most realistic one, based on a real Saab 340 airplane You can buy it at this site for $645

Pedals

Most professional is the Cirrus Rudder (the left one) but this one is expensive ($500) It even has toe brakes for gas and brake functions. The Thrustmaster Elite Rudder Control System is the best second. Where the CH Pedals (right) need to be activated like a car pedal (up and down) the Thrustmaster pedals need a coordinated forward/backward action of the feet. This makes the Thrustmaster pedal unusable for car racing.

Panels

As a replacement of the keyboard a few companies will offer a panel, making command much easier and a bit more realistic. Unknown is the $150 Programmable Active Link (PAL) by Cirrus (picture).

Similar is the $180 Aerosoft Flightboard.The unit has 128 fs98 functions, each of which requires one press to activate.

Flight Consoles

This is the real heavy stuff. complete realistic consoles including a yoke, throttle and a set of buttons.

1. Aerosoft Australia Piper Arrow Console

The most incredible console among all public available consoles....The most remarkable thing on this panel are the realistic and moving instruments and buttons. Coming to you within four weeks delivery time for around US$8.400.....You will not be the only one ordering it: this product has already been shipped to Europe several times....

Aerosoft Australia manufactures and distributes the GA-28R Flight Simulator in Sydney, Australia. The design is based on the the popular Piper Arrow III light aircraft. The simulator is a full size cockpit with all controls and instruments functioning like the real aircraft. Simply sit a computer monitor on the unit and run Microsoft Flight Simulator. All of the flight data is displayed on the real instruments with smooth and accurate movement....even the autopilot and radio stack function correctly.

2. SimHawk Pro Personal Simulator (from USA)

This console is a very realistic console made for PC-simulators. Works fine with all major sims like FS98/FS2000, Fly!. ProPilot99 and so on. Consoles are expensive. Like this one: $1.395. Order it at controlvisions site.

3. Elite Consoles (from Switzerland)

This Swiss company makes beautiful consoles but unfortunately most of them only work with the professional and expensive Elite Flight Simulator. More information at the Elite site. Elite consoles are prices from $1.000-$2.000

4. Safeline Console (from Italy)

Pff.. This is heavy stuff by the Italian company Safeline. This $1.200 flight console is simulator independent (so you can use it in FS98/FS2000/Fly! etc.) and gives you 4 seperate engine throttle levers, Thrust reverse, Propeller, Mixture, Flaps, Gear, Gear lights, Trim wheel, Autopilot, Avionics, Heading and bearing selectors, 28 push buttons, 9 toggle switches, 11 rotary switches all programmable in three different modes.

Make your own console.......

For some people are standard yokes and consoles are not enough... They want to build their own. This one is made by Junji Hirayama.

Look at these locations to find some more information abuit building your own flight deck:

Learn all about cockpit dimensions

You will need a EPIC card to connect your PC with 300+ buttons. Some indepth about Epic.

And the glass cockpits of project Magenta

A location to buy switches and buttons (europe)

Or do you want ready to use cockpit parts? New or second hand.

Find a good example of a home build cockpit. Impressive....

Joysticks

Important manufacturers are Microsoft, Thrustmaster, CH Products and Logitech. Most solid and expensive joysticks can be found at Thrustmaster. Very popular for action games. The F16-FLCS and the F16-TQS are the best Stick and Throttle on the market with tons of programmable buttons. But not very realistic to flight a 737 or a Cessna.....

Force Feedback

Force Feedback means that the program (FS98) send a signal back to the joystick. If you are using a special Force Feedback joystick you will feel a sort of response of the plane.

Important: You can't use the current Force Feedback controllers (CH and Microsoft) in combination with separate rudder pedals or throttles. The sticks soft- and hardware just can't handle this at this moment! I don't know if the USB Force Feedback Joysticks will work with Pedals. Probably they do! Please inform me if you know the answer!

CH products already offers the CH Force FX ;this one is FS98/FS2000 compatible using the latest Force FX DirectX driver. You can get it on the force feedback homepage.

And there is the Logitech WingMan Force. More stable then the SideWinder FF and with 9 programmable buttons.

BTW: If you are using a SideWinder joystick you are advised to use the Sidewinder Game Device Software. This makes easy to customize your buttons for different games. You can search for it on the Microsoft homepage. Current version is 3.0.