Hi all,

I would like to share with you my experience after a week of owning the Fulcrum One yoke, because this experience is worth it to be told. First of all let me start by saying where I am coming from in regards to yokes. My only previous yoke so far has been the now discontinued ACE desktop 737 yoke. Even though that was a solid constructed metal yoke compared to entry level alternatives and had no central detents, I soon realized that its sticky elevator feeling was not allowing me to perform tiny adjustments that are crucial in flight and especially in takeoffs and landings. So, soon after the Fulcrum yoke was announced being close to release, I sold my ACE yoke and decided to hangar all my yoke aircraft waiting for the Fulcrum One yoke. As we know the Fulcrum One recently started shipping out to pre-orders and I was one of the lucky ones to get it during the first batch. I will divide my review into the important features of this yoke:

Looks

The Fulcrum One looks amazingly beautiful. All construction is metal. The yoke handle is beautifully made, black, glossy powder coated, with buttons nicely placed and the bolts and button rims being silver in color. Very elegant and pleasing to the eye. The shape of the handle is also very aesthetically pleasing to look at and it certainly looks an expensive and very high quality product. The shaft is also nice and thick shiny silver in color and the box is black, solid and not very big for the range of motion it provides. I for sure couldn't ask for more from the looks of a simulator yoke. It could be easily a real aircraft yoke. 

Ergonomics

When I put my hands on this yoke a smile came to my face. It feels amazing to hold this yoke. The ergonomics are just spot on. It shows how much attention has been paid to design an ergonomically satisfying yoke handle. The yoke is slightly inclined forward giving a comfortable grip to your hands and to your thumbs easy access to the button controls while the thumb rests are perfectly sized and placed. I can't describe enough how perfect this yoke feels in your hands, you have to try it in order to fully realize this.

Buttons

The yoke features 4 momentary switches one colored red, two trim switches and a 8 way+depress hat switch. When I operated these switches for the first time it felt like nothing I had used before. These switches are not a typical game controller switch. As Chris, owner of Fulcrum Simulation Controls informed me when I told him how good these switches feel, these are the same switches used by Beechcraft, Cessna and Piper. You can certainly be sure when they are depressed with a clear and tactile feeling, and it feels they are going to last. 

Controls travel / Flight experience

Coming now to the real performance features of this yoke. These are the travel distance of the controls, the progressive tension and the smoothness of movement. Starting from the controls travel distance, this is huge. The elevator has 20 cm of movement from fully pushed-in in to fully pulled backwards. This is so big that the yoke moves closer to your body than any other yoke when pulling. You will actually rarely use the absolute extreme limits of its range however this is not the reason this is so important. The reason of course is the resolution this range provides to the hall effect sensors, another bullet proof design choice. You are able to do tiny changes to the elevator controls of the airplane. When taking off you can put the pitch where you want it with pinpoint accuracy, your hands moving the yoke intuitively to adjust, you find yourself fighting the aerodynamic forces and not the yoke low accuracy as it happens with lower resolution yokes which force you to overcorrect. When landing, the elevator travel makes all the difference in your landing. You can adjust to the last feet your pitch attitude with confidence that you are putting the input that you want, because the resolution is that good. My landings have never been better. My joystick is a VPC WarBRD joystick with hall effect sensors and gimbal mechanics. Still, it can't provide the accuracy that 20 cm of travel can when landing a yoke operated aircraft . In the roll axis the same story. 180 degrees of rotation. This means that you can bank your aircraft accurately and perform tiny adjustments that are not even visible on your attitude indicator but you know they happen as you fly the plane. On takeoff and landing I can take up any crosswind roll tendency keeping the plane wings level, very important for a satisfying takeoffs and landings. One can talk hours for how many benefits the blessing of having this high resolution on a yoke is. But this wouldn't be enough if the mechanics of the yoke did not allow for smooth operation. And fortunately the Fulcrum delivers the best in this area too. The movement on both axis is super smooth. There is no central detent anywhere and the force applied is just right. Not too much not too little. The yoke returns always to its center position with just enough force to feel realistic. This was one of my biggest fears because my previous yoke was not smooth enough for tiny adjustments. The Fulcrum yoke moves so smoothly that I fly with one hand, the other hand being on the throttle controls, like in the real world. It moves effortlessly with one hand, without compromising accuracy at all. There is also progressive resistance in both axis witch adds to the realism of flight under aerodynamic loads, completing the experience. All these aspects allow you to perform both slow and smooth and fast and aggressive inputs with confidence when needed. 

All in all, I couldn't ask for more from a yoke. I can't fail this yoke in any area, its just, simply and absolutely honesty perfect. 

Lastly, a word for the owner of Fulcrum Simulation Controls, Chris. I don't know Chris personally, but since I first saw him on YouTube videos presenting his yoke in flight sim shows, it believed truly that this guy wants to deliver a quality yoke without making compromises. He hesitated to put this on sale until he was 100% happy and even though I had to wait a year to get this yoke, I now know it was worth it. And all that without charging too much, while certainly he could. The competition that one can find for this yoke is at double the Fulcrum One price, plus its not even on the same features level. To me its clear that the Fulcrum yoke is more capable than more expensive yokes and that is a miracle that simmers now have this option. Chris deserves all our support in my opinion because he achieved something unique, to deliver what was a dream in flight simulation since this hobby started, and I mean of course very high quality at an affordable price. Though there were yokes before, that quality was not available before at that price. Moreover, Chris provided excellent customer support. Not only before sale but also after sale. He was always replying to my questions and emails, even thought I sent him too many due to my anticipation to get the yoke as soon as possible. Post sale, I was one of the few early owners who experienced some damage in the internals during shipping. After sending a video to Chris, he immediately suggested to send a replacement, without hesitation. I can certainly imagine a scenario that another seller would try to persuade me that this is normal. Not only that, he sent me the replacement with priority delivery free of charge, and a return label for the first yoke, which I sent the day I received the new one. So I did not stayed without a yoke while waiting. These are qualities of a person who loves what he does and I can't stress enough how thankful I am to Chris for what he did with this yoke. I wish him the best success with the Fulcrum One and all future products that he will publish that I will certainly purchase.

 

Edited November 9, 20205 yr by ComSimPilot

That sounds so good I may well order one.

 

Oh, wait a minute, I have ordered one. 🙂

Thank you for your flattering words! The feedback is hugely appreciated as it means we are doing something right!

Well, apart from delivering on time eh Ron?

14 minutes ago, tutmeister said:

Thank you for your flattering words! The feedback is hugely appreciated as it means we are doing something right!

Well, apart from delivering on time eh Ron?

Don't worry, I can hold on for a couple of more days.

UPS just delivered my Fulcrum yoke. I have to wait until the end of the work day to try it. I'm look forward to it!