indiegames
January 11th, 2010, 01:50
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2010/01/500x_flight_stick.jpg (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2010/01/flight_stick.jpg)Made of solid steel, Saitek's X65F Pro Flight stick doesn't actually move when you use it to fly a plane, instead the shaft sensing the pressure you're exerting on the stick and translates it into movement.
I had a chance to play arund with the X65F Pro Flight System (http://kotaku.com/tag/x65fproflightsystem/) a bit earlier this week and was impressed with the design and seeming sturdiness of the set-up.
The flight stick includes three 8-way hats, an 8-way thumb hat, a trigger, two buttons and two pinkie switches. It also ships with a throttle controller that includes two rotaries, a mouse hat, four 8-way hats, a 2-way "K" switch, a scroll selector, a 4-position mode switch and a split throttle that can be locked together for single-engine fighter control.
Testing the stick out in H.A.W.X. and Flight Sim X, I was impressed with how sensitive the force-sensing technology (http://kotaku.com/tag/forcesensingtechnology/) was, even detecting when I twisted the stick for rudder controls. Because the stick is made of steel, the heft gives the entire controller an added sense of realism and, I suspect, a longer life.
The one issue I did run into was that when I tried pulling off steep banking turns the base of the flight stick tended to lift up or try to fall over. The controller does come with pre-drilled holes so it can be mounted to a surface, but it would be nice if it also came with temporary clamps of some sort.
I suppose with the stick running $400, the people who will be picking it up won't be too worried about mounting it to their furniture or life-sized cockpits.
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:V_sGLiPBpWU)
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/2F-e_Y4qVkU/solid-steel-no-moving-parts-this-flight-stick-is-a-pricey-wonder)
I had a chance to play arund with the X65F Pro Flight System (http://kotaku.com/tag/x65fproflightsystem/) a bit earlier this week and was impressed with the design and seeming sturdiness of the set-up.
The flight stick includes three 8-way hats, an 8-way thumb hat, a trigger, two buttons and two pinkie switches. It also ships with a throttle controller that includes two rotaries, a mouse hat, four 8-way hats, a 2-way "K" switch, a scroll selector, a 4-position mode switch and a split throttle that can be locked together for single-engine fighter control.
Testing the stick out in H.A.W.X. and Flight Sim X, I was impressed with how sensitive the force-sensing technology (http://kotaku.com/tag/forcesensingtechnology/) was, even detecting when I twisted the stick for rudder controls. Because the stick is made of steel, the heft gives the entire controller an added sense of realism and, I suspect, a longer life.
The one issue I did run into was that when I tried pulling off steep banking turns the base of the flight stick tended to lift up or try to fall over. The controller does come with pre-drilled holes so it can be mounted to a surface, but it would be nice if it also came with temporary clamps of some sort.
I suppose with the stick running $400, the people who will be picking it up won't be too worried about mounting it to their furniture or life-sized cockpits.
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=2F-e_Y4qVkU:qzModWM2uuY:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/kotaku/full/~4/2F-e_Y4qVkU
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/2F-e_Y4qVkU/solid-steel-no-moving-parts-this-flight-stick-is-a-pricey-wonder)