New Thrustmaster SOL-R Flightstick and HOSAS

[Robert Maynard]

Was meant to be available today, unfortunately:

 

[cmdr chequers]

If someone were to ask me if I would recommend a Thrustmaster stick I'd describe it as a bit like asking an addict if they'd recommend their filthy addiction of choice. I'm currently on my 12th Thrustmaster Hotas X/Four (I've dabbled with both variants). In many ways they're absolutely awful, the sensors last about 7 months tops before they start getting glitchy and unreliable but my muscle memory is so wedded to the stick that I can't bear the thought of switching to something else and end up just getting another one each time it fails. If you've never tried Thrusmaster do yourself a favour and walk away NOW!

You have been unlucky, I have 3374 hours according to steam on my Hotas X and it is still working perfectly, I have another new one waiting in the loft for when this one eventually fails.

 

[Factabulous]

Looks like Virpil are coming out with a new budget option https://virpil-controls.co.uk/cdt-aeromax-r-flightstick.html

Budget market seems to be hotting up - and me with a mostly broken T16000 to maybe replace ...

 

[Robert Maynard]

Contrary to Amazon's delivery estimate, my SOL-R1 arrived today:

 

[Factabulous]

Tension mounts .... what will be the verdict

 

[Robert Maynard]

I'm in the "I've really got to redo a large chunk of my bindings, without losing the lot" phase of pre-installation of trepidation.

The stick is a nice weight (it arrives separate from the base) and the base feels huge (but it's really only a squared off version of the T.16000M's base). It comes with four corner "extension feet" pieces that make the footprint even bigger.