Hey Everyone,

First I just want to express my thanks and gratitude for the many people on this site that have had the patience and knowledge help to get an amateur like me off the ground and living the dream in the virtual skies - I never thought I'd end up so deep down the rabbit hole but I've clearly discovered a new passion and I love that I have a group of amazing people to share it with! The Wife is less enthusiastic LOL

I wanted to post some pictures of my sim rig and setup now that all the parts are together and I have everything working in tandem. I also wanted to see how others are set up, what hardware people are using and how its mounted, both for inspiration to improve my own set up and to get some discussion around what may or may not be worthwhile extensions, peripherals, or other goodies I haven't even considered. I'm especially curious to see how many other MacGyver's there are like me out there - if it looks stupid but it works, it isn't stupid!

Here's where I started, just the Logitech Yoke and Throttle combined with the pedals from a G29 racing wheel I already had. The Pedals work quite well if not realistic, and the braking works, although it can be a bit of fancy footwork landing in a crosswind trying to brake and stay on the centerline at the same time (heel and toe!). The Wheel itself is required for the pedals to connect to, and I have to keep it plugged in and nearby, so I mapped all the autopilot functions to it, worked out surprisingly well! The red knob will adjust heading, the +/- for VS, and the 4 blue buttons map out for HDG NAV FLC and V/S and I can use the D-pad to set altitude and rudder trim. The right monitor/TV is used for P2ATC - love the map, the ATC radio handling, wouldn't do a free flight without it. Career mode doesn't use the same ATC sadly, but I'll still enter the waypoints to get the track and ETE info. Also helps TOD planning when using Sim Rate and is nice to have in aircraft that only have steam gauges.

Recently, over the past month or so, I've gotten into Helicopters and I was having quite the struggle with my older T-flight HOTAS (seen on the right in the pic above), mainly the throttle. I did a ton of research and didn't want to break the bank either, ended up choosing the VKB Gladiator EVO (no springs) and I found on Etsy a 'Desktop Collective' that someone was 3d printing and selling, and that combo has worked perfectly. Total for both was just under 400$ CAD. The first set up was pretty haggard - I repurposed a cheapo amazon guitar stand I had into the base for the flight stick and pulled over a footstool for the collective to sit on. Was good for bit as I could set it up and take it down quickly, but I wanted more stability and something a bit more permanent, so...

Out comes the band saw and Unistrut; I cobbled together a pretty decent L shaped stand that is very stable and also moveable for when I want to use the Yoke for planes again. I went with plexiglass for the baseplates that the hardware are screwed down to, I figured that would look better than wood. I originally wanted to use wood for everything, but the Unistrut had a better 'feels like the real thing' vibe to it. I don't think many helicopters are made of wood LOL

And here we are today, finished set-up - some minor things to clean up, I want to replace the base plate screws with some black ones. Can't decide if I want to spray paint the Unistrut black as well. Cable management is always an afterthought for me but something to clean up as well.

Future considerations include replacing the wheel with an actual autopilot controller, but there's several options there - OVR has a nice compact unit but its over 300$, I debated the StreamDeck route, that's more affordable, but you need to then purchase templates and it sounds painful to set up correctly. MOZA has a G1000 that's 600$ but that's deep down on the wish list lol. Could add some switch panels for lights/startup procedures but I have a lot of options already with the 6 toggles on the Throttle Quad, the Gladiator has a ton of buttons as well, so the need just isn't there.

You can see I have a Quest 3 in the case there, but I rarely fly with it, due to PC limitations. It works, but I just don't care for the pop-in and lower settings needed to get a decent framerate. Might look into head tracking instead. TBH I'm not that bothered by using the mouse for certain things like interacting with the EFB or GPS.

WHEW long post - thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment, roast, or otherwise throw shade on my set-up, I can take it :D I'd really love to see how others here are set up, I'm sure there's inspiration out there, and in the flight sim world, there's always something else to buy! So post your set up, your man cave, your sim sanctuary, lets get a good thread going. Mods, if this starts to feel more like a hardware thread, please move it accordingly.

Here's mine, a bit simpler than yours:

I simply showed a screenshot I had of the Majestic Q400 during my P3D v4 days. It's easier for the pictures. Specs in my signature.

That HDMI cable in the floor is for when I need to plug my company laptop to my monitor (I work hybrid).

How do you find the VKB left stick and throttle for Airliners? Did you have anything else previously?

One of the nice things with the Alpha yoke is its flat top. I put a cheap flat tray on top of it. and then also a sloping tray on top that flat tray. And so now I have a gently sloped keyboard laid on that sloping tray. Thus my keyboard is on top the yoke and therefore directly in front of me. Everything held in place with velcro of course. But any yoke with a rounded top would work just the same as long as the flat tray legs are tall enough and wide enough apart so as to not touch the yoke at all.

the flat tray:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4DMLVH

The sloped tray: the front ears keep the keyboard from sliding forward and down.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZJ14XF7

Edited August 19Aug 19 by Fielder

13 hours ago, Fielder said:

One of the nice things with the Alpha yoke is its flat top. I put a cheap flat tray on top of it. and then also a sloping tray on top that flat tray. And so now I have a gently sloped keyboard laid on that sloping tray. Thus my keyboard is on top the yoke and therefore directly in front of me.

Post a pic of setup if you can!

I have the logitech Yoke and I'm waffling a lot over the AP panel they sell, which would sit on the flat part of the Yoke body. DAP500 by wingflex is new and looks like a good option in the same price range, which would leave the flat top open for a keyboard tray like you have. One of the things I dislike about my setup was having to use that TV tray for my keyboard off to my right side; would rather it up front.

Looking at the picture, we see that the flat tray is a table whose legs hold it above your yoke. Your yoke is underneath that table. Thus you now have a flat surface in front of you, instead of a round or irregular hump in front of you. But you want a sloped surface, not a flat one. So you velcro the sloped tray onto that flat table. The keyboard now is higher and it is easier to see the keys than if the keyboard was flat on the desk. And the keyboard is sloped which is always the ideal.

We see the pins and holes in the flat trays legs which allows us to set the height to be barely above the height of the yoke.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by Fielder

On 8/19/2026 at 10:56 AM, Kristofski said:

How do you find the VKB left stick and throttle for Airliners? Did you have anything else previously?

I love it. My previous stick was a Saitek X-52 standard. It was nice, but had some friction problems I was never able to solve. So I decided to sell it and when I ordered the VKB one, I decided to go left. As real as it gets... as long as I keep to airliners and GA (like the C182 or the Comanche).

Not gonna lie, the first 1-2 months were a bit hard (since I'm right handed), but then I got used to it. One added benefit is that I can now control the mouse with the right hand. I seldom fly military planes or any other single seaters, so I almost never fly a plane with the stick in the wrong side.