Flight Sim Joystick

The perfect flight sim joystick is out there. I know it is, I can smell it. It is large, ergonomic and full of buttons. It swivels left and right so I can have some yaw control. Force feedback is built right in and works so that I can feel everything. The throttle responds instantly and I never have to worry about calibrating because it is self-calibrating. It glows in the dark when I tell it to. It will call me “sweetheart” and fly for me when I want it to. Okay, maybe I am going too far, but we all want the perfect joystick.

Joysticks are 100% the way to go if you want to play a flight sim. Keyboard flying is not a good thing and you will find you spend a lot of time correcting, over-correcting and over-correcting your over-corrections. Not fun. Flying with a mouse or trackball (remember those?) is right out as well. Get a stick, Rook, and we’ll talk, cool?

Basic Joystick Models

The basic models are good enough if you just want a quick fix. Usually it’s good to have one of these two button generic jobbers on hand to use if your main goes down from all the crankin’ and bankin’ you have been doing. Personally I keep one around and on the shelf, just to show people I’m serious.

The main? Well she’s a beauty! A two button on top of the flight stick, one triggered wonder with force feedback and yaw control. The throttle lights up as I accelerate and there are six buttons on the side that do what I told ‘em to do.

Advantage of Force Feedback

What is the advantage of force feedback? Simply put, when you are looking on the screen, that is all you are doing. Without some feel on the stick you have no idea what your plane is doing. For example, if I am in a turn fight, by definition, the “E” flight means someone is going to run out of airspeed first. When they do, they die- plain and simple.

Without the force feedback stick the player cannot tell when they are approaching the stall speed until they are stalling. With a force feedback stick, the controls will become mushy and the plane will not respond as quickly to your commands; you can feel it start to stall before she actually does. This is an advantage over the two button jock trying to kill you.

Throttle Control

Throttle control? Gotta have it. Here’s why. When you are in a dog fight, or even landing, having as much control over your engines as possible is a must. Keyboard commands don’t always let you know where your throttle is sitting either. Glancing down to your flight stick and taking quick stock is much preferred.

Extra Bells and Whistles

All the extra buttons are nice as well. It will keep you from having to do a lot of “cnt-shift-F5-W/P” stuff just to pull the gear up. There are some flight sims that are nearly that complicated. Having the more complicated commands on your stick makes things go much more smoothly. They will also help keep you from getting a hand cramp.

Another command to add to the joystick (mine are on top) would be the flaps up and down commands. This is nice for the prop driven fighter jock. Yeah, and it will save your butt Junior.

There are tons of flight sticks on the net and yoke/rudder pedal combos are almost exclusively found on the web. Personally I don’t like these, it’s a taste issue. I mean who wants to fly a F-18 with Cessna control? Not this flying leatherneck.