In the market for a new flightstick. Any of you guys using the G940 with flight? I would be interested in knowing how well it works.

I've got the G940.

 

I'm... satisfied with it. It's certainly a great value, for a three-piece set (stick, throttle and rudder pedals). It does have some little issues though, and not all of it's controls are fully supported in Flight.

 

There is an underlying design problem with the axis controls that can make it hard to precisely set things. When you reverse the direction of movement, there is a pause with no new movement data sent to the computer, then there is a spike in the movement. This is most visible to me with the rotary wheels, as I use them for Mixture and Prop Control. If I'm backing one off slowly, then reverse the direction of motion, I might see 60-59-58-57-56-55 (reverse here) 55-55-55-59. I'm turning the wheel, but nothing is happening until suddenly the data jumps to where it would have been had it been changing smoothly. I quickly adapted to this, though. If I move one too far, I just move it a little bit further before bringing it back to where I want it.

 

There was talk over the last few years about Logitech fixing this "reversal bug", and they apparently did find a way to fix it. The current software more or less eliminates it for the joystick axis, and I haven't noticed it on the throttle or rudder axis either. But, for whatever reason, they never implemented the fix for the rotary knobs, even though it was the same issue and could have been corrected.

 

My rudder axis is a little unstable on the right side. Every now and then, it simply won't deflect full right and flutters a little bit when I'm moving it. Working the rudder back and forth a couple of times usually makes it go away. I may seek warranty action on that, as I've only had it a couple of months, but then I'd have to do without flight controls for a while. We'll see.

 

The hat switches on the throttle and the mini-stick on top of the joystick are not recognized by Flight when you try to configure things in the setup menu. This can be worked around by using the Logitech Profiler software to assign keyboard keystrokes to the movement directions of those controls.

 

The trim knobs on the joystick don't work either, as Flight doesn't offer axis trims.

 

The rudder pedals also have heel-cups so you set your feet up in them, rather than keeping your heels on the floor like in most airplanes. Most people seem to prefer more traditional pedals, but I am usually barefoot (so I can feel when I'm in the cups) and have carpet (on which things don't slide well), so the heel-cups work for me.

 

The Force Feedback doesn't work in Flight, of course, but the stick does auto-center with the FFB motors. There is sometimes a tiny bit of binding action as I pull it back, feeling almost like gears not meshing right or something (actually feeling like a flight-control cable is slipping off the pulley, but that's not it!) but the moment of binding occurs in a position that doesn't cause me any problems landing, which was a concern when I first noticed it.

 

This all may sound like I don't like the G940, but I do. They provide great control and, with the visibility and situational awareness provided by TrackIR, I can easily slip between closely-packed tall trees for those little strips surrounded by forest in Alaska. I just wanted to make you aware of all the potential problems before you ran out and bought one.

 

I don't know if I would buy it again, but the alternative I would want instead (Thrustmaster Warthog and Saitek Pedals) costs two and half times as much. I'll tolerate some minor issues if it saves me $400.

 

Verdict: 8/10

I'm using a G940 with Flight as well and i like it. I don't seem to have the twitchy issue others report. I actually have not flown Flight for over a month until a few days ago when I was testing my controls after they stopped working right in the latest beta release of X plane 10. I was pleasantly surprised to see my TrackIR was suddenly working and the terrian looked better. I purchased the Maule and the Hawaii pack as a result and am loving it!

I use the G940 and, like many others, I suffer from throttle issues (spiking rotaries and buttons failing). The throttle worked for about a year and then started to fail. If the throttle was a quality component I would recommend the G940 but it is not, so be warned.