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Review: Pro Flight Trainer Puma X5 By FlightSim We at FlightSim are pleased to provide our thoughts on the Puma X5 by Pro Flight Trainer. We hope you find our feedback useful. Getting Started: Shipping: Once we were notified our order was shipped, we were very surprised on how quickly we received the product and even more impressive on how they got so much in such a small package. Unboxing PUMA PAS some Assembly Required: We received the Pro Flight Trainer PAS; PAS requires some detailed assembly. As we unpacked the product, we did make notice of how well machined the parts were. They were made with highest quality, all metal and precise manufacturing. We were a little set back not to find any instructions for the product in the package. We had to go online for the assembly directions, and which PDF to follow seemed a bit confusing at first. We took our time assembling this product as we did not want to make any mistakes, it was about a two-and-a-half-hour project. Thank goodness they supplied use with little candies to make it through. The parts fit together perfectly, there was no forcing or trying push or pull things to align the screw holes. Once completed our Pro flight trainer was ready to go. Setting up the Simulator environment: Now that our Pro Flight Trainer was ready, we needed to connect it to our computer and simulator to start our flight experience. As you would imagine with a product like this, you will need some space in your room to get everything set up. We were unable to use or normal computer desk and monitor because the Pro Flight Trainer would not fit under the desk (You would need a minimum of 26in / 66cm clearance.), this positioned us to far away from our monitor, so we switched to our big screen, and I will have to say that was cool! If you have a large monitor or 50" or 60" Television with good refresh I think you would enjoy the experience as we did. If the product came with a monitor mounting kit (3 monitors) or an add-on that would have been amazing and I would recommend it. So now we had our Trainer in position with our computer and monitor ready to go, it was time to sit down and put the Pro Flight Trainer through its paces. That's when we hit our first major set beck. Every one of our chairs have armrest. This is not something you would normally think about, but the arms directly interfered with the collective controls. Now I truly understand that in the real world you're not going to have an armrest in your helicopter so I'm not going to add any negative points about that to my review, I merely point this out so you don't overlook your seating arrangements. /images/reviews/pumax002.jpg We had to resort to a folding chair, although not the most comfortable we were READY! We fired up our computer and started the simulator. Once the simulator started, we went right to the controller calibration section. This was a mistake! Nothing worked and the controls were not being detected, this was becuase we didn’t follow the instructions (too excited). If you follow the instructions, you won’t have the issues we did. Pro Flight gives you detailed calibration instructions on their website and I recommend that you follow them. Simulator setup (we tried two titles during our testing): Take On Helicopters (sim one): We have been using this simulator for many years and we felt this would be a good place to test the Pro Flight Trainer. Once our computer was calibrated, we returned to the software and found it was detecting our hardware just fine and things were getting ready to happen! Everything worked as it should, we all know that setting all the controls can be a tedious process with the many buttons and functions that need to be mapped, we were never able to get our POV hat switch to function or be recognize in this simulator. I did not find a profile online for this simulator, that would have saved us a lot of time. They do offer X-Plane profiles. They are working with Asobo to have a preset built into the Nov11 helicopter patch for MSFS2020 Flight: We started in-flight (airborne) and immediately we had full control of our helicopter and everything functioned perfectly. It was a very smooth first flight. I landed softly after 20 minutes of flight. The Pro Flight Trainer gave me a very realistic experience. For the first time in all my years of flying helicopters it felt like it was the real thing. The collective was responsive and gave you a nice touch to the controls, combined with the rudder pedals with toe break it takes you to the next level. MSFS (sim two): Although MSFS doesn’t have many helicopters (Just starting) they do have aircraft with control sticks. I wanted to see how Pro Flight Trainer would work with these type aircraft. Once again, we had to set up the controllers mapping as before but this time we were able to get all controls working with POV. /images/reviews/pumax003.jpg We set our airport to KORD Chicago and took flight. The stick and pedals worked perfectly with our Thrustmaster TCA Captain Pack and brought a new level of flight experience to aircraft as well. Normally for aircraft we use our Airbus Thrustmaster joystick, however with stock aircraft the Pro Flight Trainer gave us a little more realistic feeling. We did notice an issue however while flying aircraft., Helicopters use smaller inputs on the controls then you would in a S2S Bi-Plane or a Cap 10, but it was then we notice that the stick doesn’t give you enough room to go pull back left or back right without hitting your legs. When we moved our seat back enough to give us full surface control, we couldn’t reach the pedals. With the proper seat / chair you may be able to solve this problem as well. After hours of testing, we find that the Pro Flight Trainer would be a great addition to any Flightsim enthusiast. Our experience was enjoyable and this is the next step in virtual Reality, welcome fit to our controller options. Pros: High Quality workmanship. Smooth pedals and Control stick. Very adjustable friction on stick. Adjustable base for collective offset to seat. Adjustable Stick height. Accurate Controller layout and feel. Easy to store Used only 1 USB port Cons: Only a few predefined Profiles (There is one for X-plane now and more OTW) No brackets or hardware for Monitor mounts. Limited seat options – You will need to be selective No packaged instructions
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