FlightSim.Com Review: CH Products Yoke

CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB and Pro Pedals USB

By Rory Gillies (24 October 2000)

It was with baited breath last Tuesday lunchtime when a large box arrived. My USB 3-lever flight yoke and pedals had arrived, to replace my rather worn Virtual Pilot Pro and Pro Pedals. Opening the box, I was immediately impressed with the quality and feel of the yoke, but installation had to wait until the evening - work always gets in the way of flying!

Installation

Installing the yoke and pedals was a breeze under Windows ME - it didn't even ask for the driver disk supplied with the products. After plugging them into the two USB ports on my system Windows identified them correctly as 'Human Interface Devices'. Not bad considering the yoke wasn't even available when Windows ME was released. After installation, I checked in the Gaming Options of Control Panel, and there they were, CH Flight Sim Yoke USB and CH Pro Pedals USB. Looking at the properties of each, the yoke was perfectly centered, the throttle, mixture and prop levers perfectly calibrated - no more fiddling arround with the callibration window!

Setting Up FS2004

The current drivers means that FS2004 sees the pedals and the yoke as two separate joysticks, which means you have to assign the rudder functions separately. Initially, both joysticks have the default settings applied, so I cleared them all for the pedals, then re-assigned the rudder function. One great new feature available with the pedals are working toebrakes. You have to edit the config file to enable them, but it's well worth it.

I then set up all the button and switch assignments, and now I hardly have to touch the keyboard at all during flight!

The Test Flight

With everything set up it was time for the test flight. I jumped into my DHC2 Beaver at Sumburgh, fired her up and headed down the taxiway. The first thing I noticed was the responsiveness of the pedals. There was no twitching at all - something that was getting progressively worse on my old ones. The toebrakes are great for tight turns, giving real differential braking. Lined up on the threshold of runway 27, I pushed the throttle up and set off down the runway. This used to be a battle with the old pedals - the torque and P-factor from the Beaver is quite pronounced, and it was difficult to keep in a straight line. Not so now; with a little right pedal it was easy to keep to the centerline.

At about 65 mph IAS I pulled gently but firmly back on the yoke. Although the yoke is quite heavily sprung, there are no center detents, so it's much easier to hold the climb attitude with yoke before trimming. At 1000' I leveled out and trimmed for 120 mph IAS, reduced the prop RPM with the lever (great!) and tried the first turn. The yoke feels so much more realistic without the detents, and it was really easy to coordinate the turn with a little rudder. I managed to do a standard rate turn without losing or gaining any altitude.

After a couple of circuits it was time to try out the landing. About 4 miles out from runway 27 I reduced speed to about 90 mph IAS and trimmed for descent. After adding a couple of notches of flap (with a little up/down switch on the yoke) I advanced the prop and mixture to full, carb heat off, and descended to the threshold. Pulling the power lever to idle and gently pulling back on the yoke, I did my first perfect three point landing right on the numbers. It was easy to steer straight down the center line, and a couple of firm jabs on the toebrakes slowed me enough to turn at the first exit.

Conclusion

The CH Products USB Yoke and Pro Pedals are the perfect combination for FS2000. Smooth, responsive and with a very positive feel, they certainly add realism to simulator flying. The yoke has enough buttons, hats, levers, rocker switches and up/down switches to control just about every function of a light aircraft without having to touch the keyboard. I added a stopwatch fixed to the center of the yoke with velcro - which was not possible with the VPP due to the flat front - so it truly is a complete control system. The pedals work great, and the addition of toebrakes makes taxiing an absolute breeze. Unfortunately, the toebrakes are digital, so they are either on or off rather than progressive. This isn't a problem with the Beaver as the braking efficiency isn't that good, but with the default Cessna you're just about through the windshield with one press! This isn't the pedal's fault - FS2000 doesn't support progressive braking.

All in all a great product, and worth the wait. Available now, the two of them bought together were under 240 UKP, including delivery. Note that the original Pro Pedals will not work with the USB yoke - it has to be all USB or all analog.

Rory Gillies
rory.gillies@btinternet.com

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