My old TM Hotas Cougar is giving me a lot of problems. It became jumpy. Can't make a turn without sudden jumps, or smooth add throttle. I've tried to clean contacts, but no joy.So I'm looking for new one but with limited funds. Around 60 USD. Any suggestions? Anyone with experience with Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X?

Frankly, I'm using a cheap Saitek stick from Walmart (ST290) and it works great. I think if I do any kind of upgrade it will be from this stick to a yoke, rather than to a HOTAS stick, but I'm curious to hear if there is anything good in that price range!

I have been very happy with the Thrustmaster T Hotas X, have used it for years on various sims and never had a problem. It is also quite cheap.

I have been very happy with the Thrustmaster T Hotas X, have used it for years on various sims and never had a problem. It is also quite cheap.

Thank you for your answer. I wonder, how can it be setup to work with DCS:A10c, Black Shark or LockOn. Do you have those?

I have the black shark and have used the stick very briefly, a few minutes, with it just to make sure the game worked etc. Have not done more than that so I do not know about a proper set up. I am more of an FSX type player. It works fine in Rise of Flight. IL2, Wings of Prey and can be set up properly with them. Not sure how you can go wrong with it really. Others on this site have this stick, they may know better.

My old TM Hotas Cougar is giving me a lot of problems. It became jumpy. Can't make a turn without sudden jumps, or smooth add throttle. I've tried to clean contacts, but no joy.So I'm looking for new one but with limited funds. Around 60 USD. Any suggestions? Anyone with experience with Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X?

Email the FLIGHT team at [email protected] . If you don't they can't help you.

I recently bought the Hotas T.Flight X (for other games e.g. FSX too). I like the console, but in Flight I frequently use the mouse/keyboard, sometimese in combination with the console.. I have noticed that the joystick doesn't work right with MS Flight, especially with the acrobatic manouevres. Then the plane doesn't flipover smoothly.Maybe thrustmaster could update the driver sometime?That's why I prefer at this moment working with the mouse/keyboard, that works well and precisely enough for me.

Thank you for your answer. I wonder, how can it be setup to work with DCS:A10c, Black Shark or LockOn. Do you have those?

Hey Mirtma,You will certainly get some good feedback here, in regards to how a specific controller performs with the Flight program. But do understand, most of that feedback is going to be limited to folks who are currently running the Flight program.If you want a more overall view of suggestions on controllers in your price range, and how they work in not only Flight but other sims as well, you might consider posting similar on the Hardware controller and drivers sub forum.If you are unsure where that is located, just click on the Avsim Forums - upper left - scroll down to the hardware forums, then go to the controller and drivers subforum.Best of luck in your search for a replacement controller,

Of the sub $50 joysticks, I'm rather pleased with the Hotas X. The build quality is great, no sharp edges, it reminds me a lot of the quality of the old Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro.I'm convinced that the best feature is having the rudder control on the throttle, rather than the stick. It's far too easy to accidentally twist the stick and bleed airspeed, but on the throttle rocker, you only get rudder when you intend to get rudder.One caveat to this stick is it doesn't come with a button/axis mapping software, but I've used Xpadder ($10) to overcome that. I've bound all the axes (pitch, roll, throttle, rudder) in Flight, and bound all the buttons in Xpadder. This gives me the perk of mapping two buttons to Shift and Ctrl, which jumps the button count from 10 to 32 essentially when using button chording. I've also bound the stick twist axis to left and right brakes, which makes taxiing much easier than using the rudder. Again, Xpadder works great here since Flight doesnt have an axis bind for brakes.For $50 or less (I got mine for $35 on sale), I doubt there is a better option.

Hey Mirtma,You will certainly get some good feedback here, in regards to how a specific controller performs with the Flight program. But do understand, most of that feedback is going to be limited to folks who are currently running the Flight program.If you want a more overall view of suggestions on controllers in your price range, and how they work in not only Flight but other sims as well, you might consider posting similar on the Hardware controller and drivers sub forum.If you are unsure where that is located, just click on the Avsim Forums - upper left - scroll down to the hardware forums, then go to the controller and drivers subforum.Best of luck in your search for a replacement controller,

Thank you for your answer. Now I mostly fly MS Flight and I think I've got the answer. Hosas X should do since you don't need so many controls on stick like in combat flight simm's. It's really great community.

Of the sub $50 joysticks, I'm rather pleased with the Hotas X. The build quality is great, no sharp edges, it reminds me a lot of the quality of the old Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro.I'm convinced that the best feature is having the rudder control on the throttle, rather than the stick. It's far too easy to accidentally twist the stick and bleed airspeed, but on the throttle rocker, you only get rudder when you intend to get rudder.One caveat to this stick is it doesn't come with a button/axis mapping software, but I've used Xpadder ($10) to overcome that. I've bound all the axes (pitch, roll, throttle, rudder) in Flight, and bound all the buttons in Xpadder. This gives me the perk of mapping two buttons to Shift and Ctrl, which jumps the button count from 10 to 32 essentially when using button chording. I've also bound the stick twist axis to left and right brakes, which makes taxiing much easier than using the rudder. Again, Xpadder works great here since Flight doesnt have an axis bind for brakes.For $50 or less (I got mine for $35 on sale), I doubt there is a better option.

Thanks for your suggestions. Is that Xpadder for joystick also?

Thanks for your suggestions. Is that Xpadder for joystick also?

http://xpadder.com is where you can learn more about it. It works with pretty much any game controller that can be plugged into a PC. I've used it with my Wireless 360 pad as well to use it in games that don't have native joystick support.Bascially you start Xpadder, plug in your joystick, create a controller profile by going through each button/axis you want Xpadder to be aware of, then bind those buttons to keys in a game profile.Here is what my Flight profile looks like, with just the buttons and the stick rotation axis mapped:Obviously I have bound the keyboard commands in Flight to match. For example F5 on the throttle is Flaps Up, Ctrl F5 is Map, and Shift F5 is Skip. F6 is Flaps Down, Ctrl F6 is Lights and so on. I've put the most important flying controls as a single button press, and less important commands as Ctrl or Shift combos.

Looking good. Zinfinion, thank you for your effort. I've just ordered Hotas X. I've disconnected Cougar and connected even older Saitek X45. With that one at least axes are working. :Peace:

I prefer the CH products. I'm using the CH 568 Combat stick and the CH pedals. The CH joysticks have very smooth operation with very light push back from the centering springs. You can make very precise low level aerobatic passes over aerocaches without fighting the stick all the time. Other joysticks I have tried are so heavily sprung that the base comes off the table with any fast movement of the stick.I also have the Saitek yoke and throttle quadrant that I have used on FSX... but have not tried it yet with MS Flight because of all the physical setup required at my PC desk. I use my desktop system for other real world stuff. And for some reason, my wife doesn't like trying get at the keyboard over the yoke.Brian

Hi,

 

Do you know if xpadder solves the joystickproblems in FSX with a WIN8.1 OS?

 

WIN8/8.1 is causing a lot of trouble by suddenly disabling joysticks in FSX.

At this moment only FSUIPC4 is giving a solution to this problem (workarround). First you have to delete the joystick and all the button assignments in FSX. Then you have to re-assign all joystick/throttle movements and buttons in FSUIPC4 to make it work again.

 

I was wondering if xpadder can do the same or even better?

Edited February 24, 201412 yr by X-wing

X-Wing - you might want to ask this in the FSX forum. Someone over there can probably answer your questions.