Anything worth getting excited about? Do they feel good? 

I haven’t seen anything that puts them ahead of the mfg crosswind or Thrustmaster pendular pedals 

How is Honeycomb doing anyway? I thought he was having major issues with his creditors and/or capital investors and weren't expecting to see anymore Honeycomb products or even support for a broken Bravo? But hey, now there are Charlie's? 

Cheers

Terry

 

Edited July 16, 20241 yr by Lord Farringdon

5 hours ago, Lord Farringdon said:

How is Honeycomb doing anyway? I thought he was having major issues with his creditors and/or capital investors and weren't expecting to see anymore Honeycomb products or even support for a broken Bravo? But hey, now there are Charlie's? 

Cheers

Terry

 

I think FSElite interviewed the owner (forgot his name). According to him things got sorted out with his former partner. They will take care of the older orders and get ready for the new products. 
 

l’ve seen on redddit people getting their pedals already. 
 

I would wait a little bit to see how things are going before buying it (unless you really need new pedals). The guy seemed committed to gaining back community’s trust. We will see.

The Reddit topics with people getting their charlies:

https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/s/4IDaJ5UCXd
 

https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/s/riVhhoqJ2V

Edited July 16, 20241 yr by ca_metal

I've seen two or three Charlie reviews on Youtube. None seemed like they were very enthused about it.

It's hard to understand what these bring to the market that others don't.  I've tossed Saitek yoke and throttle quadrants in favor of Honeycomb because the Saitek yoke had a horrible and unrealistic feel and had begun to glitch badly when I stopped simming 4+ years ago, and the quadrants were a veritable glitch fest.  But my Saitek pedals are still smooth, solid and problem free after many, many years of use.  The only thing of substance I see over what I'm currently using is the fact that the pedal angles are adjustable.  That might be nice, but I have no complaint on the angle on the Saitek, so...  Yep, it's nice to know that the Charlie has hall effect sensors, but for some reason the old fashioned pots on my current unit keep soldiering on. 

Honeycomb's yoke and quadrant filled a big hole in the market at their price point/feature set when they were introduced.  The Charlie?  Not so much, I'm afraid.

I have tried them all except for the Honeycomb and I settled for The VF Ruddos . When Force Feedback becomes less expensive I will be looking into that but it has a way to go. Each year FF is getting less expensive. For someone new to this hobby these HC pedals would be a great start but if you want better realism you got to spend more money. Crosswinds would be my first choice in the quality hardware category and the next up would be The Thrustmaster TPR.

Edited July 21, 20241 yr by FreeBird(Josh)

I was there for the full 3 day event.  I saw the pedals many times but like every vendor that had hardware and running MSFS it was essentially impossible to get in the seat.  It actually surprised me quite a bit to see 50 year old guys not moving for 30 minutes and in many cases an hour or more.  So yeah, this was one of 4 items I wanted to actually try in game - never even came close.

On 7/15/2024 at 8:57 PM, Drumcode said:

Anything worth getting excited about? Do they feel good? 

I  just got it from my Feb 2023 order! A long and rocky wait I should say. LOL It's my second day with Charlie, and so far  I like it.  Very solid build, perfect grip to my carpet, no need to fix it against the wall like my Logitech rudders. Most importantly it's a first pedals I own where you can adjust tension and it feels like GA airplane. So it feels very natural. 

I have the TM Pendular. I got them for $100 less than normal price. They are OK , but not as great as I thought they would be.

Force Feedback everything is coming, yoke, stick, pedals, maybe a quad

After several day using it I actually love it. There is "foot-heel" rest at the base of Charlie that resembles convectional airplane!  IRL unless you need a dramatic ruder application you push rudder with toes while heels are resting on the floor! 

Charlie can teach you keep you heels on the floor during touch down and only lift your feet to apply toe brakes after roll. IRL we have a constant problem when pilots using rudder during touch down and inadvertently hold brakes - that make a bold spot on the tire like this (below)

That is why when we teach just before touch down we say "heels on the floor".

Here is my rudder setup at the moment

2 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

After several day using it I actually love it. There is "foot-heel" rest at the base of Charlie that resembles convectional airplane!  IRL unless you need a dramatic ruder application you push rudder with toes while heels are resting on the floor! 

Charlie can teach you keep you heels on the floor during touch down and only lift your feet to apply toe brakes after roll. IRL we have a constant problem when pilots using rudder during touch down and inadvertently hold brakes - that make a bold spot on the tire like this (below)

That is why when we teach just before touch down we say "heels on the floor".

 

Guilty !!

Thanks for pointing that out. I will modify my rudder pedals accordingly to heel to the floor option when i get home !

Nice to learn something new when visiting the forums !

4 hours ago, Maxis said:

Guilty !!

Thanks for pointing that out. I will modify my rudder pedals accordingly to heel to the floor option when i get home !

Nice to learn something new when visiting the forums !

Great mention.  Flashback to training 50 years ago.  This proper technique caused me to remove the heel rims from my Crosswind pedals.  Fortunately the CW design has them mounted with hex bolts rather than molded in.  Recommend other CW users do the same.  I did need to mount my CW's to a thin square of composite wood so they accept the various directional forces. The lower point of pressure was otherwise tilting the entire CW pedals assembly.

This is why I chose the "combat" style footrests when I ordered my Crosswind pedals.  There's nothing "combat" about them, but they look like real rudder pedals, intended to be used with heels on the floor, unlike so many other sim pedal designs.  Too many years flying taildraggers; it feels beyond wrong to have my feet anywhere near the brakes on landing - that's a guaranteed ground loop lol.

I have the Turtle Beach Velocity One rudder pedals with alternative types. One is with the flat pedal with a heel rest at the bottom ( very similar to the MFG Crosswind B109 pedals) which I don't use, and the other resembles the combat style @Stearmandriver mentioned. Frankly I have no problems with these slamming them left or right as needed without toeing the brakes.  They are well designed in that regard.  Either the ball or arch of your foot naturally rests on the raised bottom portion of the pedal where it is below the toe brake pivot point. You actually have to slide your feet higher up the pedal to get toe brake application.   

But this thread is about the Charlie and my first thoughts are what on earth is all that decoration on the front of the pedals? The Alpha is similarly decorated (honeycomb design of course) but the Bravo has no such nonsense with the available real estate given over to functionality.  

Hardware such as pedals do a lot for our immersion in this hobby but elaborate designs on the front of these pedals seems excessive and takes that away a bit especially at night,  I would have thought?  Having said that, pedals, that is each individual pedal, have long had elaborate designs and motifs applied to them. I wonder if anyone has a collection of vintage and classic rudder pedals? It would be very rare.    

Cheers

Terry