New Flight Controls from Honeycomb

  • I had some time hands on with the Honeycomb yoke at Flight Sim Cosford. Nice kit. However I also had some time with this. Bit more expensive (£450 I was told), but very nice and superbly built. The equal of a Yoko I'd say but better in every sense. Out in December I believe.

    https://www.fulcrumsim.com/

  • I had some time hands on with the Honeycomb yoke at Flight Sim Cosford. Nice kit. However I also had some time with this. Bit more expensive (£450 I was told), but very nice and superbly built. The equal of a Yoko I'd say but better in every sense. Out in December I believe.

    https://www.fulcrumsim.com/

    Thanks for the feedback, the Fulcrum reads more attractive to me than the Honeycomb, though still no talk of force feedback...

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • I had some time hands on with the Honeycomb yoke at Flight Sim Cosford. Nice kit. However I also had some time with this. Bit more expensive (£450 I was told), but very nice and superbly built. The equal of a Yoko I'd say but better in every sense. Out in December I believe.

    https://www.fulcrumsim.com/

    I can believe that it's maybe a bit better than the Honeycomb but the costprice is for me also a factor (driving a BMW is also more enjoyable than a VW)

    Real name: Johnny

    PC-Specs: i7-3930K - 32GB RAM - GTX1070ti 8GB - 2TB SSD + 1TB SSD + 2x3TB HDD

    Laptop Specs: i7-9750H - 32GB RAM - RTX2070 max-Q 8GB - 2x 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB SSD

  • ...more than a "bit" better. Having said that the honeycomb has lots of extra knobs and buttons - which aren't much use for me in VR but others will appreciate.

  • Thanks for the feedback, the Fulcrum reads more attractive to me than the Honeycomb, though still no talk of force feedback...

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Agreed. I was kindly given a possibility to take the yoke/stick in a real GA plane twice (a C172RG and a Robin DR400). The most important difference I felt were the forces acting back from the control surfaces upon the controls. While I can leave the yoke unattended for a while (after good trimming) in any sim, this would have been impossible in the real planes - and this was in good weather.

    I would pay up to 500 € for a consumer FF yoke, but present prices for FF (Brunner) yokes are prohibitive.

    Kind regards, Michael

    Intel i7-6700K 4.0 GHz / Asus MAXIMUS VIII RANGER / Kingston 32 GB DDR4 / Samsung SSD M.2 500 GB + Samsung SSD 1 TB + Intel SSD 500 GB (AeroflyFS2) + WD HD 6 TB / EVGA GTX 1080Ti 11 GB / LG 34UM95 3440 x 1440 / HP Reverb / Win 10/64

  • (...)The most important difference I felt were the forces acting back from the control surfaces upon the controls.

    (...)

    Exactly. There's no spring to recenter the yoke/stick in an aircraft: the control surfaces recenter in the air stream.

    On the ground there's thus no force (except weight if unbalanced controls), and the faster you fly the stiffer the controls.

    The trim alters the centering of the control surfaces in the stream, allowing the pilot to reduce the necessary effort to maintain the yoke/stick in the position corresponding to the desired aircraft attitude.

    For instance, in order to fly level, the pilot pulls/pushes on the yoke/stick to get the desired nose attitude, then holds firmly the controls in this position while trimming until no more force is needed, the yoke/stick now naturally recenters in this position.

    Of course, each phase of flight may require a different trimming and it's really up to the pilot how and when to use it. Some like to keep a light positive effort in the stick.

    Non-FF desktop yoke/joysticks, on the opposite, are spring-loaded and usually recenter on a fix position. Trim acts then merely as an offset.

    For flying level, you push/pull the joystick against the spring to get the desired nose attitude. But then, if you hold the yoke/joystick while trimming, you just loose your attitude because trim acts as an offset on elevator.

    You need thus to simultaneously progressively relax your effort on the yoke/joystick while trimming, until you achieve the desired nose attitude when your spring-loaded controls are back in their mechanical center zone.

    As a result, one usually flies yoyo until approximately finding a suitable trim setting... Flying by the trim is a common FS-grown pilots mistake (I did it too by the past until figuring out how to properly trim my aircraft).

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    Edited once, last by Trespassers (October 30, 2019 at 11:25 PM).

  • I have the Honeycomb yoke now received and configured. AFS2 see this plugged-in device as 'alpha yoke', the calibration and movement-accuracy

    works fine but the extra switches that are available for alternate, battery, (magneto's)start, different light-switches aren't usable in AFS2 in my first

    attempt to configure, I have also XP11 and in this FS, all switches and the startkey can well be configured and works accordingly like in reality.

    The trim-levers on top of the left- and right handle works fine in AFS2 and also the buttons on these handles can operate the desired functions as

    flaps, brakes and gears... The complete set is well build, feels solid and easy to mount and to remove (attach via a separate plate) on any surface.

    The second HW-piece from Honeycomb(to be delivered begin 2020) will enhance my joy of flying as it will manage the throttle, wheeltrim, gears and

    I hope can command some autopilot-functions as promised.

    Real name: Johnny

    PC-Specs: i7-3930K - 32GB RAM - GTX1070ti 8GB - 2TB SSD + 1TB SSD + 2x3TB HDD

    Laptop Specs: i7-9750H - 32GB RAM - RTX2070 max-Q 8GB - 2x 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB SSD

  • I was wondering if you ever got the buttons on panel to work? Just received yoke and works well in XP11, but can’t get buttons to configure in AF2. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.