saitek yoke and throttl. look like a nice cross between the CH product (cheap plastic) and the Jet yoke (expensive metal).anyone heard anything about it (I dont know the cost)http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/yoke.htm

Old news Mike, posted a page or 2 back ;)http://www.simw.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=d...etails&pid=1845160 to 170usd depending on the discount.

ya.. sorry about that, dont get here too much anymore. I am curious if anyone has one though, would like to get some imput as I have thought about the CH throttle quad as I have the yoke.

Hi Mike, I'm also looking forward to the yoke with interest, but 'my' shop states February 2008... Saitek's joysticks have always been good to me - with excellent driver support as far as I would dare to judge. Although, the pedals didn't look 'too convincing'. ;-) Does anybody know whether Feb/08 is correct? Cheers and kind regards Jaap

Hi Jaap,The Saitek page says shipping now for the yoke. Just got a couple of the throttle quads today, but can't play with them till Sept.5, my birthday. Sort of a bummer, but they look pretty nice :-) They give you extra knobs to set them up differently, even a solid one that joins all three of the levers into one.That's all I can report yet!Best regards,Den

Hi Den,>>Just got a couple of the throttle quads todayBe sure to let us know how your findings are, some of us are really interested in those things performance ;)

I will

I too would like to know the true impressions, pros and cons of this yoke system. I'm looking for a good replacement to my CH stuff.

Thanks for the pointer, Den. They're maybe shipping to Europe by kayak and the Northwestern Passage? :-) LOL, most likely, nobody will see you that day. :-) "Where's Den?" "Hmmm, havent seen him in hours, D

>saitek yoke and throttl. look like a nice cross between the>CH product (cheap plastic) and the Jet yoke (expensive>metal).>>anyone heard anything about it (I dont know the cost)>>http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/yoke.htmJet Yoke . . ? Where's this at?I just got my PC Pilot magazine today and had a full page add in there for that yoke and pedals. VERY nice looking gear. I already have the CH though and it hasn't let me down yet, so i am sticking with it :-)

Evening Jaap,Well, I hooked the throttles up, to give them a go. Bought 2 of them, so I could have 4 engine support. I plan to return them, if they will let me. The thing that gave me a problem was their behavior between the different levers was inconsistent. All of this pertained to having 4 engine throttle axis, but if I set up the first 3 on the first module as engine 1-3, and then the first lever on the second module as engine 4, 1,2,4 would track consistantly, but engine 3's lever would act completely different, being way oversensitive in the middle part of the range, though at the top, it would be 100%. I got it to work if I set up 1 & 2 on the first module as engine 1 & 2, skip the 3rd lever, and then make 1 & 2 of the second module as engine 3 & 4. Weird, eh? I could not make it behave any other way, at least with more than 2 engines on a single unit. If I made all 3 axis on one unit throttles, the third engine throttle would have the weird behavior. Without this glich, I would probably have kept the units. According to their software, the behavior between the different axis was consistant, but not in my sim. I will say that the resolution of the throttles did appear a little bit on the coarse side, so I don't know how many bits resolution they are using. Don't know if this would apply to how the yoke responded though since I did not buy it. I may have to try the CH throttle if I get my money back on these. My testing was in several versions of X-Plane, which I spend a lot of time in. The build quality was ok, but if I had the $$, I would rather have PFC or GoFlight. Wouldn't we all:-) For now, I have gone back to my single throttle that goes with my VMAX yoke. Maybe I just got a bum unit, but since I just got them, and they say that you can return for refund in first 10 days, I think for now I will go for the refund if I can get it.Not too rosy a report, but it may be food for thought before you order, at least if you can't lay your hands upon one for a personal intro before buying.That's about it for now.Best regards,Den

The manual for the throttle unit only shows FS9 and FSX in it's context so maybe the drivers/software aren't a perfect fit for Xplane.

Well, perhaps that is a factor, but I was able to get the 4 axis to track consistently by only using 1 & 2, on the first unit, and 1 & 2 on the second unit so it makes it harder to understand the anonomoly I saw when I tried any other arrangement to get 4 engine support. They did not mention using any specific arrangement in the manual that I recall. If you were only using the throttle for a single or 2 engine arrangement, there did not seem to be any problem, and they supplied a single bar to gang 4 axis together for 4 engine support, so they must intend for you to use 2 quadrant units together to work that way. I can't recall if I tried that arrangement, which would use 2 & 3 from the first quad, and 1 & 2 from the second quad to get the 4 engines, but I will probably unpack them and give that a try. I had other more pressing jobs on today's agenda :-) I was disappointed to say the least, but the software did not seem to change the actual performance of the individual axis, which it is capable of doing; I was just trying to get 4 individual axis for 4 engines, and I got the same behavior with and without the included drivers, as I had first just callibrated the units in Win XP only. The software did not show the inconsistencies. All the rocker buttons worked ok. If I make any more discoveries, I will let you know for sure. The yoke still looks to be nicer than the CH model from the pictures, and the build quality sounds better also, but I already have a yoke. This could all be something quirky with my computer arrangement, but I will post if I find out something that would be helpful. About time for some shuteye, so I will let you know tomorrow :-)

Well, unpacked the buggers again this morning. Here is what I have found out. I could not get the throttle axis to track consistently before, but have found them to now work ok in X-Plane, if you don't use Saitek's drivers and just callibrate the quadrants in Win XP. The Saitek drivers seem to increase the sensitivity of the individaul axis so that only half way through the travel gives you 100%. Without their drivers, you get full use of the travel length of the lever, which makes the control much finer. I tried the throttles in FS9 and FSX, but I don't know how to get FS9 or FSX to recognize both throttle quads for engine control. Both programs would only use 1 of the quadrants, with the other one not registering in the axis assignment part for your controllers, though it showed up in the part where you select your controller. You have x,y, and z axis on each unit. One quad is fine, but not the 2 together. Perhaps someone knows the trick? Maybe you need Saitek's software for this to work, but I do not want to re-install that again as it seemed to be the root of my problems in getting the throttles to correctly. As it stands now, I think I will keep them. I think the Saitek's offer a greater sweep of movement over the CH Throttle's levers, and since I don't have $400 for the GoFlight throttle quad, the Saitek is not bad at a quarter of the price of the GoFlight:-) Hope this info is helpful!Regards,Den

Thanks for the updates and if you do get the idea of reinstall the Saitek software please let us know how FS9/FSX responds.