Yoke or joystick

i have a Joystick and Throttle, to fly air plane, heli or space sim. it can be switched from pc to xbox.

it have a cable between so i can reach my keyboard.

i have a helpful "Speech Recognition To Key Press" app in ms store.

I am also a joystick guy. As I most often fly fighter jets, bi-planes and helicopters, this feels more natural.

Also it saves quite some desk space.

Prefer a Joystick, tried a yoke & it just didn't work out for me.

In RL, you can fly a plane with stick (and rudder) much more precisely than one with yoke. It has a good reason why all aerobatic planes have a stick. The only exception is the Cessna Aerobat, but I wouldn't count it as a real arobatic plane..

The same applies, imho, to the sim. Also, most of the planes I fly in the sim have sticks, so it's just logic to use a joystick.

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

...sidestick on the left side, right hand for the mouse and keyboard...

Real airplanes are flown with stick in the right hand, throttle at the left and have tailwheels

I agree with the joystick and mouse. I prefer the "vintage plane" setup, so throttle quadrant at the left, joystick in the centre and mouse at the right-

...which leads to the interesting question: which stick are we using and why?

I have an old but trusty CH Combat Stick and CH Throttle setup. It is a nice HOTAS and back than wasn't that expensive.

Before that I had the basic Logitech Extreme 3d Pro. I liked it, but I wanted a better throttle and more precision, so I switched.

Today there are more options, but also the price range has spread quite a bit.

I mainly fly helicopters. Therefore, I fly all aircraft from the virtual right seat.

And so this is the arrangement for me:

(1) on the table:
- left: throttle quadranten
- middle: MacBook
- right: joy stick

(2) under the table:
- helicopter Control

TCA Airbus side stick suits me. I also have the throttle quadrants but do not use tham.

I use a basic stick, an ancient Saitek AV8R with twin throttles. It is really good for a helicopter as I use the left throttle for collective and can semi-independently move the right for throttle. It is not exactly what a real helicopter has but it’s for a simulation and we are supposed to use our IMAGINATION. I don’t see the point in building an exacting cockpit reproduction, a cockpit is functional, a tool for getting the job done.

I switch hands for the Aerofly helicopters so that my left arm does collective and throttle like flying P1 in a helicopter’s right seat, what would be P2 in an aeroplane with conventional engine and system controls in the centre.

I remember the Socata Rallye and I think the Aeronca Citabria had throttles on the left and one/you used the right hand for the stick. It felt much more natural in real life than it does in Aerofly. (I try to re-train my right hand for driving EuroTruck Sim 2 and I’m all over the road, fine with the left hand). In original PC FS’s Robin I swap arms too.

I’ve flown real sticks and yokes and both get the job done, a yoke seemed more clunky but it left the lap free for a map and clipboard. I never did map reading in a helicopter. I never flew a side stick, simming a side stick seems obvious.

I see no point whatsoever in a yoke for a sim. A stick is direct movement and uncomplicated. The push and twist mechanical contortion of a yoke seems purely cosmetic to me, money put in the wrong direction.

Cheap and simple analog pots do fine. In real life the control cables are routed all over the place and the moving control surfaces are far off on the extremes of the plane so there is sag and tons of inertia and movement lag and remember the plane takes time to make the control surface movement and then the aircraft mass has to be overcome to get the plane moving. A pilot adapts to the imperfections, it is natural and the end result is delivered to the pilot’s requirement. Hall effect sensors in a joystick might even be too good?

Tons of switches are useful. I use up and down switches for mixture and propeller pitch/engine speed. I don’t need analog sliders for controlls that are slow and seldom used. I could use another twenty or thirty switches more than a pretty F-16 replica stick for flying the Baron!

I am not sure about all that as I do not fly helicopters. I was trying to fly in one particular sim where I found it was difficult to exactly control the throttle settings. I kept getting creep. Hence I bought my TCA sidestick and throttle quadrants. Even then, I had issues with calibration, but In general though I think my TCA is better than my old Extreme 3D pro. More accurate. I can see why some GA folk would want a yoke if they were actually learning to fly for real with one.