Does VR Eliminate Need for Bravo Throttle Quadrant?

I ordered the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant right after Christmas, and it is still on backorder until at least the end of this month. I also started to use VR about three weeks ago. I cannot imagine going back to 2D since I am hooked on VR. Do you agree with me that there is no need to have an external throttle component when I can easily manipulate all the various functions it performs using a mouse, keyboard, or yoke? Please let me know if I am overlooking a benefit of purchasing the throttle quadrant. I want to make sure to think this through carefully before cancelling my order. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I thought the main reason from someone to get a throttle quadrant such as Honeycomb Bravo, Logitech/Saitek etc was to minimize the usage of mouses and keyboards? You’re getting VR for additional realism. And physical throttles, levers and switches also provide additional realism. Why return back to mouse/keyboard?

ps: still waiting for my Bravo, as it was delayed by Aerosoft for late March.

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I don’t think VR has any bearing. Decent flight controls will enhance your experience regardless.

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The answer to this question is mostly up to you. If you’re happy with controlling your aircraft with a mouse and keyboard, then anything else is superfluous.

I have the Alpha, the Bravo, and the Reverb G2… but I still want to have that tactile feel of Yoke and Throttles, even if I can still do it with a mouse.

Your question could also be answered differently if you fly multiple types of aircraft. Now that I’ve settled in to MSFS2020, I find myself almost always in the Cessna Citation Longitude… which means my Bravo is setup with twin jet controls, air brakes, flaps, etc… to match that aircraft. Even in VR I want to be able to reach down and adjust these things without having to find my mouse, and then find the sweet-spot on each 3D cockpit control, and then manipulate them with that mouse. To me, it’s much nicer to just physically reach in the general direction of the throttle, find it, and manipulate it like… well… a throttle.

Just my $.02.
Jim-Sim

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Thanks for your replies guys. I guess I’m concerned that it would be difficult to learn all of the various buttons, switches, etc. by feel without being able to see them while in VR.

Muscle memory works pretty well - you’ll learn where everything is pretty quickly.

Disclaimer: I don’t have a yoke or throttle quadrant but I do also sim race, and have a HOTAS with a lot of buttons. Finding them in VR is easy once you’ve practiced a bit.

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Thanks, JimSim. I appreciate your comments. You seem to agree with the others that I shouldn’t underestimate the feel of realism just because a peripheral is physically outside of the virtual cockpit. Something for me to think about. Thanks again.

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For the row of autopilot buttons, make them tactile by using small bits of self-adhesive velcro and the little rubber furniture bumpers.

You shouldn’t have any issues with the rest.

Nothing like good old Yankee ingenuity :grinning:.

I have the Alpha and Bravo but use TrackIR instead of VR. I would absolutely keep the Bravo, even if you didn’t use the AP functions (above poster has a good suggestion, maybe putting some on middle button to count left or right/figure where you are).

Even without AP you will have Trim, throttle controls, and flaps which will be easily found by moving your hand left to right.

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I think over time, you will decide which buttons, switches, etc… you prefer with each device. In VR (using a mouse), I find it difficult to hit that exact spot on the Auto Pilot, for example, to adjust a parameter or push a button on or off. But even blindly in VR I know where my AP buttons and dials are on my Bravo, or more importantly, my Logitech Multi-Panel (which I prefer over the Bravo for AP functions).

Like @bdshort550 says, “Muscle memory works pretty well.”

[Edit: One more thought… in this economy, if you decide you don’t use that Bravo once it arrives, you could likely move it on eBay or Craigslist and always get your money back - unless you got stung with your initial purchase :slightly_smiling_face:]

Sitting in a chair with the TPM pedals and Alpha & Bravo yoke & throttle is the way to go for me with my Oculus Rift 2. You always want to reach out and grab what you see in VR but having the physical pedals, yoke & hand on the throttle is HUGE for me in the immersion factor and feeling like I’m in a plane I rented like I do in real life.

That’s an excellent point, although not directly related to the original question. I remember that in FS2004/FSX I used to fly anything I could get my hands on, from airliners, to F16s, to… Santa Claus’ sleigh and Harry Potter’s broom. There was no consistency whatsoever and I’d never get to learn any aircraft in depth, much less to set up proper controls that matched a specific cockpit.

Now with MSFS2020 I decided early on to focus on 2-3 airplanes only (C172/182, B350 and CJ4) and it’s a wholly different and much more enjoyable and rewarding experience. So my advice to the original question would be: get your VR headset, get your throttle quadrant and yoke, pick an aircraft that’s really worth it and learn to fly it properly, that and that alone.

I often wondered about this with VR, as I have never really been into it… But I can see the benefit for flight sims. I feel like I would be wearing the goggles and blindly moving my arms around trying to find the right button or throttle control on my desk. How does that work? Just seems like it would be awkward, is this not the case?

The VR mouse implementation stinks in MSFS so no it doesn’t eliminate the need for the quadrant.
As for lack of hardware visibility with a VR headset on…you learn through muscle memory pretty quickly. Give it a week or two and you’ll have no need to take the headset off to reach for something.

The key to successful VR is to get your hands on the yoke, then reset your view center to match.
Sometimes I have to move my head forward or back and reset it a couple times until the VR world and the real world are in sync. Then I find that when I lean back in my (real world) chair, I fall through the back of the fixed seat in the VR cockpit!

Ironically, I also find that the best position in the Citation Longitude, strangely allows me to actually lean outside the aircraft (as though the window was open) and look down at the ground. Somewhere there is an ongoing thread about VR scale and cockpit scale… something is going on here and needs a rework. I’m not a small guy, but in some cockpits I feel like I’m in a tube of toothpaste.

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You learn and familiarize quickly…
I have 30+ buttons mapped and within reach on my setup.
Everything becomes fluid the more you fly.
For any control that isn’t mapped I have an interaction pointer mapped to my T16000M trigger.
To use in the virtual cockpit.

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I purchased bravo quadrant before getting into vr side and wondered the same… whether I had wasted money… conclusion is I didn’t. As others have said muscle memory and feel can go a long way and you still need a quadrant even when flying vr.

Bravo quadrant by the way is a fantastic bit of kit, pure class for the price.

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^^^ That ^^^

Whats a good VR headset for MSFS? I would like avoid supporting facebook or google…