3 hours ago, eslader said:

Now that Fulcrum has apparently run into trouble, if I were buying today it'd probably be a Yoko.

Oh, that's a shame...I have one of their yokes and it is amazing..

3 hours ago, davenicoll said:

Oh, that's a shame...I have one of their yokes and it is amazing..

I know. I'm sad about it - it's really the only yoke I want to recommend. Yoko is nice, but overpriced and Brunner is the same, only moreso. And anything less expensive than the Fulcrum was, the build quality falls off a very sharp cliff. The next best thing is probably the Honeycomb, but for what they're charging for the new version, the Fulcrum was by far the better deal. And after Honeycomb we get the engineered-to-fail-prematurely controllers that are Thrustmaster and Logitech.

From what I've been able to gather looking around at posts, sounds like Fulcrum ran into pandemic-related supply shortfalls, then people started cancelling orders and now, in order to stay afloat he thinks he has to accept new orders even though he still can't get the parts. It's not a great business decision, but he's not a business person.

Sadly, I've seen stuff like this before - engineers tend to be good at designing and (sometimes) building things. That skillset isn't anywhere close to the one you need to run a company. It's not at all uncommon for tech-product startups to get in over their heads on the business side even though their product is excellent. I still have hope he'll pull out of the nosedive, but the more people run around saying he's a scammer, the less likely that becomes.

Edited December 3, 20232 yr by eslader

11 hours ago, eslader said:

I know. I'm sad about it - it's really the only yoke I want to recommend. Yoko is nice, but overpriced and Brunner is the same, only moreso. And anything less expensive than the Fulcrum was, the build quality falls off a very sharp cliff. The next best thing is probably the Honeycomb, but for what they're charging for the new version, the Fulcrum was by far the better deal. And after Honeycomb we get the engineered-to-fail-prematurely controllers that are Thrustmaster and Logitech.

From what I've been able to gather looking around at posts, sounds like Fulcrum ran into pandemic-related supply shortfalls, then people started cancelling orders and now, in order to stay afloat he thinks he has to accept new orders even though he still can't get the parts. It's not a great business decision, but he's not a business person.

Sadly, I've seen stuff like this before - engineers tend to be good at designing and (sometimes) building things. That skillset isn't anywhere close to the one you need to run a company. It's not at all uncommon for tech-product startups to get in over their heads on the business side even though their product is excellent. I still have hope he'll pull out of the nosedive, but the more people run around saying he's a scammer, the less likely that becomes.

Just to throw my penny's worth in here. I bought the Fulcrum Sim yoke from Chris about three years ago and not only did I find,  and continue to find the yoke a sterling product, his after care support has been second to none.

Thanks for all the recommendations here, I'm in no rush so I might wait for a few more months and get either a Yoko or Brunner based on the above posts. For those wondering about negative reviews, I noticed some from Turkish sellers (I'm based in Istanbul), some 1 star reviews on a couple of the main websites here that talk about it not being worth it for the money which sparked my query on here. All your opinions carry more weight so thanks for that.

21 hours ago, F737MAX said:

P.S. As a fan of the PMDG 737, would you consider the Thrustmaster Boeing yoke? A 'pendular mechanism' like that of the airliner yoke rather than a push-pull light GA style.

Absolutely, it's more in my price range and I've watched some reviews on it that sell it really well. I'll see how things go over the next few months. Thanks for the info.

I happened to find myself with a Yoko, wasn't even in the market necessarily.  I think its fantastic although mine has a few quibbles that need working on.  First is that the red button on the left of the yoke isn't working, second is that it didn't come with the clamp to hold it down, if anyone has any leads on a yoko clamp or has one to sell i'm all ears.  Third is that it seems the sensors may be noisy as my pmdg 737 yoke wont sit precisely still.  hand flying has never felt better and overall I'm ecstatic that i have a yoke i'd never have sprung for in a million years.  to celebrate i went out and got a honeycomb bravo and thrustmaster flight rudder pedals. 

If you contact Virtual Fly they will likely sell you a clamp.