I have been using my Saitek USB joystick (with throttle and twist rudder) for 2 years now, and wonder what I am missing by not having rudder pedals. I generally keep the autorudder on as I find the twist rudder awkward. I know of some people that have the pedals but don't use them because FS is too sensitive and they cannot get them configured proprerly. The question is how much am I missing ? Is having rudder pedals essential ?Mark.

You don't say which model of Saitek stick you are using but if the rudder control is by twisting the stick then pedals will be a great help.I started off with a MS Sidewinder which has a twist stick for the rudder and didn't like that bit nor the small throttle lever so I moved up to a Saitek X36 combo.The X36 (new model is the X45) has a seperate throttle module which incorporates a large rocker switch for the rudder, I found this much better than the twist stick approach and used it for over 2 years.When I could afford it I purchased the CHPro USB pedals and that made rudder control even better; I never have the FS auto rudder on.I have had no trouble configuring the pedals and sensitivity is fine although I do have a fully registered copy of FSUIPC and use its joystick setting utility for the X36 and pedals.HTH

Hi Mark,I tried flying for two years with a logitech extreme 3d digital joystick, and for realism, you just cannot duplicate the feel of pedals with a joystick.Get the CH Pro Pedals, and I use the CH Pro 3 lever Yoke, both USB.I still use the joystick when I want to crash...err..fly those vertical gravity finders, (helicopters), but as a Pilot, it's as close as I can get without heading to the FBO and shelling out $72 for an hour of fun.I haven't checked prices in a while, but I paid I think $93, and $98 on line using pricewatch and a place called cruxworks which I am not sure is even in business anymore. If you shop around, you should not have to pay more than $100 for each.I also had my right toe brake go out, and shipped them back to CH Products a few weeks ago. I was without pedals for 2 1/2 weeks, but they have a 3 year warranty and I was on 2 years already. They rocked as far as customer service goes. A couple of emails to confirm it wasn't my system and drivers and they fixed it right up FOR FREE.Best of Luck,Joehttp://aboutpolitics.net/images/banner.gif.About Politics.net - FORUMShttp://pub207.ezboard.com/bpoliticsgivemel...tyorgivemedeath.Contribute to the Richard Harvey Scholarship Fund.http://www.avsim.com/pages/scholarship.shtml

Hiya,I have an X36USB with CHPRO USB pedals.The pedals are good pedals, and not that expensive really.I started out with a twist grip, and let me say it's a gimmic, nothing more.Ok for arcade shoot em ups, but just not controllable enough for real sim flight.It is hard to manourve all three planes at once as twisting moves the x and y planes, and pushing the joystick to one side invariably generates rudder plane movement. All this can make tracking and firing in a dogfight very hard. For civilian flight sims a twist grip is not disasterous, but takes away from the sense of reality that you are trying to create.Pedals make life much easier as they are more responsive and accurate than twist grips, or even the X36 rocker.If you do helicopters then they are pretty much essential for better control.Also pedals make the setup complete, it feels more real, and more natural to use pedals.Its like going from driving in 1st gear all the time to having the full five.Having said all that I have had two problems with the pedals.1) In some games that do not support multiple controllers you may not be able to use the rudder pedals. No big deal as you still have the rocker.e.g. Falcon 4The problem is with XP only.For Win98 you can get a fix for the X36 to put the CH pedals on the rocker axis - i.e. you override it with the pedals.2) Some very old games will only use joystick ID 1. WinXP sets joystick priority according to its own whims so you may get some games where you have to unplug the pedals (or attempt to fly using the rudder to control all three primary axis - now that is fun!)Once again XP problem only.In win 98 you can set the joystick ID's to make the X36 ID1 and thus be the one used.So issues are an XP problem, not a joystick problem.These problems only affect a small band of quite games, most games are more than happy to use multiple controllersFS2004, FS2002 etc.Strike FightersLOMACetc.Finally if you are thinking of getting rudder pedals then you may also want to start looking at getting a quality HOTAS type joystick/throttle combo, or a General Aviation type flight yoke.(depending on your Military sim/Civilian sim preferences). A good stick/yoke really does make a big difference to simming.CheersStuntie.

By all means!!! They make flying much more realistic....Ron Mashburn

Yes.

Definitely, BroThey are a big big improvement. I used to use the Sidewinder with the twist function. Pedals are so much better. Also, you can taxi whilst doing your checklist items - hehe. CheersLungs