It may surprise many of you, but I managed to fly with a single stone-old (10+ years) Sidewinder joystick until now ^_^

Anyway, I got myself the Majestic Q400 and while the small side throttle on my joystick was enough for the little bit of manual jet engine throttling I did it is simply not enough for the Dash. And whenever I try to move them with my mouse I regularly go from off to max and back again unable to hit a spot in between.

 

So, I have to get a throttle. Since it seems I also have to replace my AMD with a NVIDIA please do not suggest me the most expensive and exclusive thing out there. I need a solid throttle that just works for the Dash and my 738 & T7 :rolleyes:

 

Thanks in advance!

I use two Saitek throttles side-by-side.

Do they work under Win 8.1? I have to use it and can't downgrade to W7 (job related).

Sorry, but I have no personal experience with Windows 8. I suspect they do, but someone will have to confirm that.

I use the CH Throttle Quadrant with the Dash and PMDGs and several other aircraft. It is a versatile and reliable piece of kit and is compatible with all versions of Windows.

You don't need to use two Saitek throttles if you don't want six handles. One will work fine. That's the way I did it for many years before the "accuracy disease" got me lol. 

Since the CH Throttle Quadrant and two Saiteks are about the same price I’d like to know more about the differences ^_^

I now know that the CH product will work under Win8, so if anyone who reads this successfully operates the Saitek please tell me.

What bothers me a little bit about the CH Throttle Quadrant is that the movement range of the throttles look much smaller, about 1/4 or so of the Saitek. Pictures may lie of course.

I recently bought the Saitek Pro Cessna yoke that came with the throttle quadrant and I ended up buying a second throttle quadrant for the Q400 (you don't need 2 for the 737).  Works great and I am also using Windows 8.1.  I mainly fly the PMDG 737NGX and Q400,  You think using a 10 year old Sidewinder is bad.....I have flown with the keyboard ever since I started simming in 1988!  Only in April did I upgrade to yoke and rudder pedals!!  What a difference....I can't believe I used the keyboard for so long but it just seemed natural after so long.

 

Eric

Thanks for your input! Leaning toward one or two Saitek at the moment.

I thought about pedals and yoke too, but since I have to buy a gtx780 now my budget is non existend already. Maybe I will complete the setup for Christmas (in case PMDG won't release for P3D until then which would cause heavy money drain)

Thanks for your input! Leaning toward one or two Saitek at the moment.

I thought about pedals and yoke too, but since I have to buy a gtx780 now my budget is non existend already. Maybe I will complete the setup for Christmas (in case PMDG won't release for P3D until then which would cause heavy money drain)

 I would get rudder pedals along with the yoke so probably best to wait until you can do both, especially with the Q400 as I find it needs quite a bit of rudder at times.

 

 

Eric

Yes, throttle is first because the Q400 is unflyable with the mouse for me, pedals and yoke are next but will have to wait a few months

I use one Saitek throttle and was looking to get a second one.  They are very good and I haven't had any issues with them at all.  Another option could be Goflightinc's throttle quadrant, their modules are pretty nice, but are more costly.

I've got a full suite of CH kit, the latest CH drivers have been repurposed specifically for Win 8 and I can confirm they work totally reliably. The CH kit is tough with replaceable parts from the CH website.

 

What bothers me a little bit about the CH Throttle Quadrant is that the movement range of the throttles look much smaller

The throttles move through about 75 degrees and seems to give plenty of fine control.

I would suggest having a look at the Thrustmaster Warthog with two throttles built in. Its expensive but the cream of the crop always is.

I would suggest having a look at the Thrustmaster Warthog with two throttles built in. Its expensive but the cream of the crop always is.

 

Yes, but it's also a Joystick.  Depending on what you want for realism, not the way to go for the Dash 8.  I have both the Saitek yoke/pedals/2 x throttles and the Thrustmaster Warthog.  Having all the condition/prop/throttle levers does add greatly to the immersion.  The yoke vs joystick is a personal thing, but since I have both I use the yoke for any aircraft with a yoke.

 

The Thrustmaster Warthog is top notch.  The signal is smooth and precise.  Flying DCS A-10C with all the buttons of the real thing is fantastic.

 

The Saitek gets the job done, but the pots have a noisy signal and you need some software (FSUIPC registered works well) to sync the physical position between throttles, as rarely does the same physical position of the throttles give the same input to the sim without it.  In fact, it has become part of my preflight checklist to "sync" the throttle positions through FSUIPC everytime the throttles are plugged in or the computer restarted.  Without this, I can get relatively substantial asymmetric thrust (2-3%, but at 30% torque on landing, that's not as small as it seems).

 

Whenever the throttles give up the ghost, I am likely to give the CH quadrant a try.  The general user experience I've heard with hit seems that it may be a more reliable, cleaner and better synced signal that comes out of it.