CH Products Flight Sim Yoke

[Kieran]

Today I went for a 20min introductory flight in a Tomahawk (VH-LMV), my first time flying an aircraft. Very rough down at Camden today.

The first thing I noticed was how different the flight controls are compared to my basic Saitek ST90. So I started looking at yokes. I found the CH Products Flight Sim Yoke. It seems pretty good, a decent number of buttons and a throttle of some description.

I found it on SkyComp for AU$150 + $11 shipping. The cheapest price I could find.

So my questions:

Will the CH Products yoke be anything like (feel wise) that of the Tomahawk?

Does anyone know anywhere cheaper?

I have googled SkyComp and they seem to be very good, but has anyone here purchased anything from them?

Cheers

Kieran

[MdMax]

Hello !

I'm also searching for a (good) yoke and rudder pedals, but I would never buy a product without knowing what's inside the case. Unfortunately, for now, reviews and product specifications only describe the case of the yoke. They don't talk about the technology inside, and about what you can expect on the USB port. They don't talk about the resolution, the refresh rate, and the latency of the control axes.

Would you buy a monitor without knowing it's resolution, if it's a monochrome cathode ray tube or a LCD ? Would you buy a mouse without knowing if it's a ball mouse, or a mouse using optical or laser technology with the resolution of the sensors and response time ?

It's looking like there's competition on the yoke market, but no informed customer, even if you ask the manufacturers:

http://www.chproducts.com/retail/yokes.html

http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/yoke.html

https://flypfc.com/?/products/yokes/

http://www.vrinsight.com/public_html/index.php?module=Board&action=SiteBoard_1&iBrdNo=27&sMode=SELECT_FORM

...

It's looking like they are still using non-sustainable technology from the past century (potentiometers with spring set):

http://www.chproducts.com/shop/parts.html

With a yoke, you'll feel the spring (like a joystick), not the force of the wind on your control surfaces like in a Piper PA-38 Tomahawk, but of course, with a yoke you're getting closer to "the real thing".

Happy flying.

Edited September 10, 2011 by MdMax

[FirstOfficerTom]

Hi Kieran,

I use the CH Flight Sim Yoke and CH Pro Rudder pedals. I fly PA-28's in real life and can tell you that it is a worthy purchase. I got mine on Ebay.co.uk for £80 (GBP). The controls are very lifelike but are fairly 'light' which is to be expected as there are no yoke's out there that simulate the wind effect on the ailerons/elevator. I would highly recommend it over the saitek alternative as the saitek yoke commonly has 'ghost inputs' meaning that you will not touch the yoke but it could input to the computer that you are banking right etc etc. Having said that, the saitek throttle quadrant is a better as it can be mounted separately to the yoke and is more functional than the small throttle quadrant on the CH Yoke.

I've used my yoke on my 2009 white macbook with XP9 and my 2011 Imac with XP9 and with both there is no input latency whatsoever and the refresh rate is not affected, if that's what your inferring MdMax :S

I've heard the PFC yoke is also very good but is an enormous amount of money, I'd suggest researching more if you have the money to blow on that.

Any other questions about the CH yoke, I'd be happy to help

Tom

[Conan Davis]

I just actually upgraded from the CHProducts Yolk and Pedals to the Saitek Yolk and Pedals. I can say from personal experience that the CHProducts did the trick and then some. I was very happy with the product even tho my setup was an older set (I had mine for about 5 years before I moved up to the Saitek about a month ago).

Not sure price wise if you can but I personally would suggest the Saitek setup. However if the CHProducts is still cheaper and what you can afford I'd say it's still a good investment. I think I saw stated before that they are using spring technology in it which was true, altho they have some new versions out now not sure if they've moved to the Digital setup or not.