CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB and Pro Pedals USB
By Rory Gillies (Updated By Nels Anderson 1 December 2006)
t was with baited
breath last Tuesday lunchtime when a large box arrived. My USB
3-lever flight yoke and pedals had arrived, to replace my rather worn
Virtual Pilot Pro and Pro Pedals. Opening the box, I was immediately
impressed with the quality and feel of the yoke, but installation had
to wait until the evening - work always gets in the way of flying!
Installation
Installing the yoke and pedals was a breeze - it didn't even ask for
the driver disk supplied with the products. After plugging them into
the two USB ports on my system Windows identified them correctly as
'Human Interface Devices'. After installation, I checked in the
Gaming Options of Control Panel, and there they were, CH Flight Sim
Yoke USB and CH Pro Pedals USB. Looking at the properties of each,
the yoke was perfectly centered, the throttle, mixture and prop
levers perfectly calibrated - no more fiddling arround with the
calibration window!
Setting Up FS2004
The current drivers means that FS2004 sees the pedals and the yoke as
two separate "joysticks", which means you have to assign the rudder
functions separately. Initially, both joysticks have the default
settings applied, so I cleared them all for the pedals, then
re-assigned the rudder function. One great new feature available with
the pedals are working toebrakes. Once you've made all the settings
in the MSFS menus you can actually control your plane on the ground
just like real pilots do with pedals for primary steering and toe
brakes for stopping or for making sharp turns with differential
braking.
The yoke has quite a large number of buttons and switches, some on the
yoke horns and some on the case. They are quite similar to those used
in real aircraft and there are enough of them that by making appropriate
assignments you can greatly reduce your need to use the keyboard during
flight. This really helps improve the flying realism!
Setting Up With FSX
FSX recognized the CH Products yoke and pedals without any problems
and they were partially set up by the FSX installation process. It was
then only necessary to assign the various buttons and switches, but
this works pretty much the same way in FSX as it does in FS2004. It
may take some time to get things just they way you want but there's
nothing really difficult about it.
The Test Flight
With everything set up it was time for the test flight. I jumped into
my DHC2 Beaver at Sumburgh, fired her up and headed down the taxiway.
The first thing I noticed was the responsiveness of the pedals. There
was no twitching at all - something that was getting progressively
worse on my old ones. The toebrakes are great for tight turns, giving
real differential braking. Lined up on the threshold of runway 27, I
pushed the throttle up and set off down the runway. This used to be a
battle with my old pedals - the torque and P-factor from the Beaver
is quite pronounced, and it was difficult to keep in a straight line.
Not so now; with a little right pedal it was easy to keep to the
centerline.
At about 65 mph IAS I pulled gently but firmly back on the yoke.
Although the yoke is quite heavily sprung, there are no center
detents, so it's much easier to hold the climb attitude with yoke
before trimming. At 1000 feet I leveled out and trimmed for 120 mph IAS,
reduced the prop RPM with the lever (great!) and tried the first
turn. The yoke feels so much more realistic without the detents, and
it was really easy to coordinate the turn with a little rudder. I
managed to do a standard rate turn without losing or gaining any
altitude.
After a couple of circuits it was time to try out the landing. About
four miles out from runway 27 I reduced speed to about 90 mph IAS and
trimmed for descent. After adding a couple of notches of flaps (with
a little up/down switch on the yoke base that I had assigned to this
function) I advanced the prop and mixture to full, carb heat off, and
descended to the threshold. Pulling the power lever to idle and
gently pulling back on the yoke, I did my first perfect three point
landing right on the numbers. It was easy to steer straight down the
center line, and a couple of firm jabs on the toebrakes slowed me
enough to turn at the first exit.
Conclusion
The CH Products USB Yoke and Pro Pedals are the perfect combination
for any version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Smooth, responsive and
with a very positive feel, they certainly add realism to simulator
flying. The yoke has enough buttons, hats, levers, rocker switches
and up/down switches to control just about every function of a light
aircraft without having to touch the keyboard. I added a stopwatch
fixed to the center of the yoke with velcro so it truly is a complete
control system. The pedals work great, and the inclusion of toebrakes
makes taxiing an absolute breeze.
All in all a great product, and worth the wait. Available now, the
two of them bought together were under $250. Note that the original
Pro Pedals will not work with the USB yoke - it has to be all USB or
all analog.
Rory Gillies
rory.gillies@btinternet.com
See all CH Products control devices here
CH Products Ultimate Control Bundle:
get the yoke and pedals plus the multi-engine throttle quadrant
all combined at a special price
At about 65 mph IAS I pulled gently but firmly back on the yoke.
Although the yoke is quite heavily sprung, there are no center
detents, so it's much easier to hold the climb attitude with yoke
before trimming. At 1000 feet I leveled out and trimmed for 120 mph IAS,
reduced the prop RPM with the lever (great!) and tried the first
turn. The yoke feels so much more realistic without the detents, and
it was really easy to coordinate the turn with a little rudder. I
managed to do a standard rate turn without losing or gaining any
altitude.
