Hardware & Technical shopping advice wanted - HOTAS

Lance Corrimal

Lance Corrimal
Hi commanders,

I'm in the market for a decent HOTAS. The Warthog's out of the picture due to the lack of twist2yaw axis, what should I get? With the idea of getting a rift at some point I'll be looking for as many buttons as possible, I don't do touch type (but i do fly with a "crew", voice attack + HCS).

Cheers
LC
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
T.16000 is leagues above the T-Flight in regard to buttons and more importantly accuracy.
I had a T-Flight before I got a T.16000 last years Christmas.

But my first one only survived less than a year (or about 1700 hours).
 

OBYOZ

OBYOZ
Have you thought about twin joysticks, as you're in a space ship not a plane. J1 for pitch/roll/yaw, j2 vert/lat/fwd
It's works great for me and highly recommend.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Since I'm looking back at no less than 8 dead (or dying) T.Flight HOTAS X within less than 2 years, I wouldn't recommend it. Not cheap anymore at this reliable failure rate, none lasted longer than 3 months.

It has a severe issue (likely intentional), its weak wiring design in the Stick Twist, which even with extremely careful handling will wear it down - resulting in erroneous and increasingly uncontrollable Twist signals.
(3+ months in , I usually also started losing the most frequently used buttons, as the Microswitches don't seem made for endurance as well; since at this point its twist typically was near total failure anyway, just an added annoyance)

Basically I'm also now looking for a different HOTAS, preferably one that doesn't break down within 3-4 months :p
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
One can play the game with the entry level T.flight HOTAS X on the PC and variations for the Xbox and PS4.

For the price, features and reliability the Thrustmaster t.16000m wins for the PC. It has yaw on the joystick but can also switch to rudder pedals as desired.

For the most immersive HOTAS that was made for games like Elite Dangerous and X-Plane 11 the Logitech X-56 grey beats all others. Do not go with the X-56 blue or Saitek X-55 as it took the grey version to fix all their past issues. I've owned all three and after a year the grey is still dialed in.

For a solid metal fighter feel go with the Thrustmaster Warthog. Many use the Warthog joystick in combination with a Saitek/Logitech throttle. It's weakness is no yaw requiring button programming or rudder pedals. Many love the rudder pedals per the immersion. Being a solid build it also takes more effort to push the buttons and move the hats.

Then there is the Russian built Virpil HOTAS component system which with world marketing will probably blow away every other gaming HOTAS made. There is a waiting list to get them. We are still awaiting their awesome throttle design to test. Per the suggestions above these are the only ones that I don't own.
 
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bootsam

bootsam
Ive an X-55, which Ive had for at least 3 yrs, which has summarily failed to exhibit any of the reported x-55 shorcomings. I may just be lucky, but it works for me and has more buttons than I need.
 

13A

13A
I had a T-flight Hotas X for a couple of years (since original beta) but it broke whilst moving house so I bought a T-16000 + throttle.

T-16000 combi is good but I couldn't get on with it - it doesn't fit my (damaged) hand so I've bought another T-flight (now 1 year old and no issues - touch wood).

T-flight is cheap and cheerful but has enough buttons for the high use controls. I use a small keypad for other stuff - landing gear, lights etc.

T-16000 is excellent and has enough options without needing a modifier. There's 12 on the stick base alone!
 

andrak

andrak
Had the t-flight and the 16000m in the past. Good accuracy on the 16000m but both cheap plastic crap that lasted around a year.

I've used CH fighterstick, pro throttle and pro pedals for 2+ years now. Solid as a rock. No twist yaw though.
 

jasonbirder

J
X56 or Warthog (since the otherwise excellent CH Products no longer seem so widely available/supported)
If you're dropping Hundreds on a new HOTAS do consider getting pedals - really help immersion and obviously vital if you ever get into Flight Sims
Warthog has the best build quality and feel by a country mile...Saitek has a bad re quality wise but i owned X36 X35 and X52 HOTAS for years and only had to open up one set once to sort the Pots out - so my experience was good too...
 

Lance Corrimal

Lance Corrimal
Nick Sticks said:
Do you have a HOTAS at the moment and what's your budget?
Click to expand...

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as a true HOTAS... 11 button 3 axis joystick with one top hat and a tiny throttle lever built into the base.

Budget - lets say I'd be wide open to shell out the price of an A10 Warthog if it had a twist2yaw axis, but if i can get something as decent for less from another manufacturer, all the better, goes straight into my rift savings account XD

that being said: a huge army surplus here in germany right now is selling original, used, pilot seats, copilot seats, navigator seats and flight engineer seats from decomissioned lockheed C160 planes ... that's for all you T9 Heavy pilots out there XD
 

who?

who?
Alec Turner said:
On the subject of the Virpil ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/459001-Virpil-HOTAS-getting-it-working
Click to expand...

To be fair, that makes it seem a lot worse than it is.

I have the Virpil throttle, and that works fine out-of-the-box. The biggest downside is that ED doesn't support that many buttons on a single controller, but that's an ED/DirectX issue and not specific to Virpil. (Don't have the Virpil stick - going with the VKB Gunfighter Pro instead - so can't comment on that).
 

jinx_nk

jinx_nk
Lance Corrimal said:
Hi commanders,

I'm in the market for a decent HOTAS. The Warthog's out of the picture due to the lack of twist2yaw axis, what should I get? With the idea of getting a rift at some point I'll be looking for as many buttons as possible, I don't do touch type (but i do fly with a "crew", voice attack + HCS).

Cheers
LC
Click to expand...

Hi LC,

all HOTAS I would recommend (Thrustmaster, Virpil or VKB) have no twist2yaw axis. So, you have in my opinion the following options:

- X56: I don't recommend this model, because it looks like Logitech is offering even a worse quality than Saitek with this model. Just based on public reviews, not my own experience.
- T.16000M FCS Hotas: Although it seems to be a simple device, it use a high precision sensor, and high quality-cost relationship. I am a user of them, and really satisfied.

Regards,
Jinx.
 
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