DB93
January 7th, 2010, 22:36
Hi all,
I'm just a bit excited, so I wanted to tell anyone willing to listen lol. Christmas and my birthday have just passed, which left me with a few extra dollars to spend on my own gifts (I'm one of those impossible to shop for people I guess, so I tend to get paper gifts lol). Well, I splurged a bit, and finally got myself a TrackIR 5, the Saitek Switch Panel (the one with the starter knob and landing gear lever) and the Aerosoft Beaver X, and wanted to share my initial opinions of them all.
TrackIR 5
First I'll start with the TrackIR. I've read about it for years, and honestly felt it was just too expensive for what I believed to be a bit gimmicky for my tastes. I always fly in the vc, but panning around with a hatswitch never bothered me much, so I just thought that there wasn't a significant enough benefit to the TrackIR to justify spending the money on one. Of course, years have passed, and the one thing that remained pretty constant from posts by people who used it was that, for the most part, they couldn't imagine having to going back to flying without one.
Well boy was I wrong and were they ever right! I fly a triple-monitor setup, and with the TrackIR, I actually felt like I was in the airplane for the first time ever. Moving my head around to control my view on-screen became very natural very quickly, that is, once TrackIR's speed settings were turned down a bit, as the initial 'out of the box' settings would have given my poor pilot some massive whiplash (if it didn't outright spin his head clean off lol.) With my new switch panel and the TrackIR, this was probably as close to virtual reality that I've ever experienced. The ability to keep my eyes on the airport as I'm turning in on final, and still being able to easily glance down at my gauges to keep an eye on everything I'm doing is simply amazing. I can finally understand why those who use it couldn't imagine flying without it, as it brings an entirely new level of immersion to the sim.
Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel
For the Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel, this is something I've been eyeing for a number of months now. It had some growing pains when it first released which kept it off my 'buy' list, but I'd heard that the problems had been worked out and that it was now a pretty decent piece of hardware. I have a home-built button box that I have momentary rocker switches on, most of which are assigned to functions available on the Saitek panel. The Saitek panel is *not* programmable, but that was fine with me, as I wanted to have those functions assigned to buttons anyway, so that just frees up the buttons on my own box to reassign to other functions, and the Saitek unit looks a heck of a lot better than what I put together lol.
Under my initial testing, the panel works exactly as advertised. Light switches, cowl flaps, gear lever and indicator lights, flip the switch and the appropriate system is activated in the sim. That said, while it works exactly as advertised, there are scenarios with some third-party aircraft where some or all of the switches either don't work, or don't activate the proper system.
This is an unfortunate side-effect of the way the unit itself works. Simulator commands are sent to FSX through SimConnect, and they use standard command assignments for standard events. As any of us who have used many third-party add-ons can attest, many of the more complex aircraft sometimes have to tie multiple systems to one event or sometimes change what is being activated by that event entirely. Naturally, developers aren't at fault here, as they're trying to work within the limitations of the existing game engine to provide systems and features that are more complex than the default engine has events and hooks, otherwise the third-party developers would most certainly use the available standard events and hooks for their more complex aircraft systems if they could.
The Switch Panel sends standard SimConnect commands and looks for standard hooks to interface with FSX. If an aircraft has had to have some of its systems 're-routed' so to speak, then incorrect things get triggered in the cockpit (if anything at all) when a switch is hit on the switch panel. As I said previously, the unit is not programmable, so there is no way to reprogram the buttons to try and accomodate third-party aircraft with custom systems/triggers/events/hooks, so the device's real benefit seems to only be for those who fly primarily ga aircraft.
Ultimately, it works perfectly for my needs, as I do fly general aviation aircraft all the time, so I don't have to worry about the numerous complex systems in something like the PMDG 747. From my research on their forums, it appears that the complex heavies like that don't work well with the panel. Many switches seem to either not work at all, or trigger the wrong systems, so it *really* doesn't seem well-suited to those of you who like to fly the heavies. But for people like me, who like to fly GA, the panel seems to work perfect and has been a very welcome addition to my home 'cockpit' (if you could even call it that lol.) I've tested it with the Beaver X (amphibian, to test the gear lever), the default 172, and the Maule, and everything seemed to work exactly as advertised. I did read that it had a problem getting the starter to work on the Carenado 182Q, but I haven't tried that plane yet, and they already had an updated aircraft.cfg (that was provided to them by Carenado) that is supposed to fix that issue.
Aerosoft Beaver X
Finally, though not hardware related, I also picked up the Aerosoft Beaver X. The Saitek Switch Panel worked perfectly with it, and with the TrackIR, I really felt like I was in the plane. It was an amazing experience, and for the first time in my flight simming hobby (since FS95), I really felt like I was flying. The Beaver is a really nice plane, with a lot of variants, a great sound pack, a mission, lots of paints, and is a heck of a lot of fun to fly. The interior vc textures feel a little dated but are of overall good quality. It flies really well, and 'feels' right in the way she handles (though I'm not a real-world pilot, so I can't comment on the accuracy of the flight model.) The Aersoft Sound Controls add a lot to the sounds of this plane. They sound great, although landing the amphibian in a lake is a bit of an odd experience, as the water sounds include seagull sounds that just seemed out of place so far inland, but they're good sounds nonetheless. Overall, it's a really well done plane, a lot of fun to fly, and I'm very glad I picked it up.
Well, those are my new toys, and I just wanted to share both my excitement, and my initial impressions of what I wound up 'getting' for my Christmas and Birthday gifts. These certainly made the big 4-oh a little easier to take. ;)
Thanks for reading, and I hope that it was at least a good read with at least a little good information in it.
-George
I'm just a bit excited, so I wanted to tell anyone willing to listen lol. Christmas and my birthday have just passed, which left me with a few extra dollars to spend on my own gifts (I'm one of those impossible to shop for people I guess, so I tend to get paper gifts lol). Well, I splurged a bit, and finally got myself a TrackIR 5, the Saitek Switch Panel (the one with the starter knob and landing gear lever) and the Aerosoft Beaver X, and wanted to share my initial opinions of them all.
TrackIR 5
First I'll start with the TrackIR. I've read about it for years, and honestly felt it was just too expensive for what I believed to be a bit gimmicky for my tastes. I always fly in the vc, but panning around with a hatswitch never bothered me much, so I just thought that there wasn't a significant enough benefit to the TrackIR to justify spending the money on one. Of course, years have passed, and the one thing that remained pretty constant from posts by people who used it was that, for the most part, they couldn't imagine having to going back to flying without one.
Well boy was I wrong and were they ever right! I fly a triple-monitor setup, and with the TrackIR, I actually felt like I was in the airplane for the first time ever. Moving my head around to control my view on-screen became very natural very quickly, that is, once TrackIR's speed settings were turned down a bit, as the initial 'out of the box' settings would have given my poor pilot some massive whiplash (if it didn't outright spin his head clean off lol.) With my new switch panel and the TrackIR, this was probably as close to virtual reality that I've ever experienced. The ability to keep my eyes on the airport as I'm turning in on final, and still being able to easily glance down at my gauges to keep an eye on everything I'm doing is simply amazing. I can finally understand why those who use it couldn't imagine flying without it, as it brings an entirely new level of immersion to the sim.
Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel
For the Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel, this is something I've been eyeing for a number of months now. It had some growing pains when it first released which kept it off my 'buy' list, but I'd heard that the problems had been worked out and that it was now a pretty decent piece of hardware. I have a home-built button box that I have momentary rocker switches on, most of which are assigned to functions available on the Saitek panel. The Saitek panel is *not* programmable, but that was fine with me, as I wanted to have those functions assigned to buttons anyway, so that just frees up the buttons on my own box to reassign to other functions, and the Saitek unit looks a heck of a lot better than what I put together lol.
Under my initial testing, the panel works exactly as advertised. Light switches, cowl flaps, gear lever and indicator lights, flip the switch and the appropriate system is activated in the sim. That said, while it works exactly as advertised, there are scenarios with some third-party aircraft where some or all of the switches either don't work, or don't activate the proper system.
This is an unfortunate side-effect of the way the unit itself works. Simulator commands are sent to FSX through SimConnect, and they use standard command assignments for standard events. As any of us who have used many third-party add-ons can attest, many of the more complex aircraft sometimes have to tie multiple systems to one event or sometimes change what is being activated by that event entirely. Naturally, developers aren't at fault here, as they're trying to work within the limitations of the existing game engine to provide systems and features that are more complex than the default engine has events and hooks, otherwise the third-party developers would most certainly use the available standard events and hooks for their more complex aircraft systems if they could.
The Switch Panel sends standard SimConnect commands and looks for standard hooks to interface with FSX. If an aircraft has had to have some of its systems 're-routed' so to speak, then incorrect things get triggered in the cockpit (if anything at all) when a switch is hit on the switch panel. As I said previously, the unit is not programmable, so there is no way to reprogram the buttons to try and accomodate third-party aircraft with custom systems/triggers/events/hooks, so the device's real benefit seems to only be for those who fly primarily ga aircraft.
Ultimately, it works perfectly for my needs, as I do fly general aviation aircraft all the time, so I don't have to worry about the numerous complex systems in something like the PMDG 747. From my research on their forums, it appears that the complex heavies like that don't work well with the panel. Many switches seem to either not work at all, or trigger the wrong systems, so it *really* doesn't seem well-suited to those of you who like to fly the heavies. But for people like me, who like to fly GA, the panel seems to work perfect and has been a very welcome addition to my home 'cockpit' (if you could even call it that lol.) I've tested it with the Beaver X (amphibian, to test the gear lever), the default 172, and the Maule, and everything seemed to work exactly as advertised. I did read that it had a problem getting the starter to work on the Carenado 182Q, but I haven't tried that plane yet, and they already had an updated aircraft.cfg (that was provided to them by Carenado) that is supposed to fix that issue.
Aerosoft Beaver X
Finally, though not hardware related, I also picked up the Aerosoft Beaver X. The Saitek Switch Panel worked perfectly with it, and with the TrackIR, I really felt like I was in the plane. It was an amazing experience, and for the first time in my flight simming hobby (since FS95), I really felt like I was flying. The Beaver is a really nice plane, with a lot of variants, a great sound pack, a mission, lots of paints, and is a heck of a lot of fun to fly. The interior vc textures feel a little dated but are of overall good quality. It flies really well, and 'feels' right in the way she handles (though I'm not a real-world pilot, so I can't comment on the accuracy of the flight model.) The Aersoft Sound Controls add a lot to the sounds of this plane. They sound great, although landing the amphibian in a lake is a bit of an odd experience, as the water sounds include seagull sounds that just seemed out of place so far inland, but they're good sounds nonetheless. Overall, it's a really well done plane, a lot of fun to fly, and I'm very glad I picked it up.
Well, those are my new toys, and I just wanted to share both my excitement, and my initial impressions of what I wound up 'getting' for my Christmas and Birthday gifts. These certainly made the big 4-oh a little easier to take. ;)
Thanks for reading, and I hope that it was at least a good read with at least a little good information in it.
-George