I suppose if you’re using a yoke and don’t have rudder pedals then they are probably more worth getting. But in your case using a sidestick anyway with a twist you can get away without them.
I’m currently using a yoke and have just brought pedals but am thinking of returning them as they are not really used in flight. Mostly for taxiing and crosswind landing but I can probably just use my sidestick for taxiing. I’m not really finding much benefit to using them as I have since found out that the simulator doesn’t even simulate adverse yaw properly anyway. So rudder pedals in FS2020 will not be used to their full potential. When turning in the Cessna for example all turns are completely co ordinated (without even having to use rudder) so for this instance it’s pointless having them.
On the other hand I must admit that I’m getting used to using them and feel like I have more control especially when landing.
Same here. Cross winds only really seen to affect the plane while your wheels are on the deck. Moment you lift off there’s no real need for rudder pedals at the moment.
This was true in the past but not any longer. Turn of all assistance, try banking the default C172 left or right and observe the turn coordinator ball and nose.
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I didn’t realise that wasn’t the case anymore. What assistance options do I need to turn off? There is only one option for auto rudder and this only affects the takeoff, not in the air.
I have everything in the sim set to hard and all assists off. I have the same TPR pendular pedals as you and love them, my favourite part of my setup. If all assists are off you’ll need to counter the propeller torque pushing you left when taking off, and as EvidencePlz says above make use of the turn and ball coordinator.
I saw above you said it doesn’t make you fly any better. I think the goal is not to make landings easier, but to add to the immersion of the sim experience. For that reason, I can’t imagine not owning rudder pedals. Yoke, throttle and pedals to me are essential for simming, otherwise just save a fortune and use an Xbox controller.
One other consideration with the pendular rudder pedals is helicopter flying. I haven’t flown helicopters yet, but I’ve seen many reports that the TPR pedals are great for helicoptor flight as you can alter the spring tension and foot placement to simulate helicopter flight very accurately.
If you ever intend to fly helicopters in the future, I’d consider holding on to them. I personally love mine.
I do it all the time in the F-14, hehe.
I think at the very least for a bare minimum flight simming is just a single joystick with integrated throttle control and twist axis. Like Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. This should be enough as an entry level hardware that’s cost the same as a Xbox controller but it elevates the experience and usability more than a controller.
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Good point, a joystick would be a better option.
One thing I’d comment here I thought might be interesting in this context.
I have a spare T16000M twistable joystick. I have removed the twist spring on it, and put some resistance so that it just stays where I twist it, but it doesn’t want to come back.
While I don’t use this for DCS or IL-2, I do use it in MSFS with great results. It feels for me like the real plane, when I apply pressure to pedals to get the ball centered, I don’t feel like I am applying any more pressure, I just leave my feet where they are when coordinated (to the point I can’t really say if my feet are centered or not). Same with this joystick, I twist it just a bit to copensate when needed, and leave it there.
Yes, Ideal for helicopters.
All the aeroplanes I have flown in real life included rudder pedals, they are very useful for doing crosswind landings, taxing keeping the plane in balance, recovering from a spin, toe brakes and keeping to runway heading while taking off !
Now I wonder whether that Ryanair jet is flying without any rudder pedals to save on cost. 
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Never.
My old thrusmaster Hotas X had one of the best implementations I’ve seen in a joystick for a rudder, just behind the throttle, really ergonomic.
I have an X55 for 5 years now, and I use one of the two wheels of the throttle. Is not bad, but I prefer the Hotas X one.
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The cheap saitek 3 lever quadrants are actually pretty darn good for what they are. Don’t be fooled by the honeycomb bravo. The sensors are still potentiometers (instead of contactless magnetic sensors). After prolonged use they’ll eventually developed the same problem (noise, spike etc…) as the cheap stuff. But in that case you can easily replace the cheap saitek throttle. Not so much for the honeycomb…
The TPRs are very pricey and I don’t have any experience with them. But if you fly a lot of GA a set of good rudders are pretty essential. It’s very difficult to get the right amount of coordination with a twist grip. And on airliners they are needed for crosswind landings and takeoffs (You are not supposed to use them in flight.) I have a set of VKB t-rudders and I can’t imagine flying without them.
That’s interesting to know that the Honeycomb uses potentiometers. The TCA throttle I have uses hall sensors which are known to not wear out. Only time will tell how long the Honeycomb lasts.
I have since decided to keep using the TCA for GA but am now considering the Saitek. The Virtual Fly is very expensive for what it is.
I have also decided to keep the TPR rudder pedals. Over the last few weeks I’ve got used to using them and now feel it would be difficult without them. I think rudder pedals take time to get used to as I hadn’t used them before. They’re not like a throttle for example where you can just use it straight away, there’s more of a learning curve to them. I now realise that they’re an essential part of flying.
Exactly. Steer something with feet is very unintuitive to most people. And this concept of “turn coordination” isn’t really explained very well in most gaming/simming literature. But once you understand why, you’d realize how important the rudder pedals are.
If I’d upgrade my Saitek at some point I’d go with the TCA throttles just for those sensors. Spiking pots are a pain to deal with. And yet everybody else is still using them in throttles. (Except Virpil, but that’s more of a fighter/hotas type of throttle…)
The strange thing is too is that in every tutorial in the sim, not once is the rudder controls mentioned or how to use them. Seems very odd considering the rudder is one of the most important control surfaces on aircraft. I would really like to know why these are not even mentioned. Surely it’s one of the basics of flying.
The more I use rudder pedals the more I appreciate having them. It just takes time to get used to using them, but once you do you can’t live without them.
I guess it’s two things:
1: Most of the times if your turn gets a little uncoordinated it doesn’t make that much of a difference. You can tell the ball is off center but the plane still turns fine so people would just ignore it.
2: Most civil sim in the past have a very heavy emphasis on Tubeliners. These things don’t use rudders in the air. (Yaw damper can coordinate turns even though its main purpose is to preventing dutch rolling) So there’s that.
And it’s probably very difficult to explain what turn coordination is without preface it with a lot of theory on aerodynamics. That might get too complicated. My two cents.
Well - depending on what you mean by
I am not sure if this concept would “fly” (pun intended). The pedals in a GA plane do much much more than just steer on the ground when taxiing. If you curve in an airplane it sometimes tend to “push” out of the curve. While this does not sound to harmful it can have various effects even on gas consuption or even lead to “no gas reaches the engine” events (bad…).
Therefore, GA planes have a so called turn indicator. It looks like this:
Now this ball shuld be always in the center, if it moves to the left or right you have to correct your turn using the pedals (“kick the ball” left pedal when on the left, right pedal when on the right).
And pedals in a GA plane are much easier to handle in this situation than a turning stick - because you would have to apply some force to the rudder in order to fight the wind forces.
Right - so adding pedals will not only allow you to “taxi more authentic” - if you really pay attention you will also need them during the flight. And yes, MSFS is actually having a working model of this - try one of the DV20s or the DA40 and watch the turn indicator as you go along… it will do its thing…
Finally they are used during landing for linging up the airplain with the runway.
The trick is, you keep the wings level with the ailerions, while aligning the plane with the rudder. Again - turing the stick (even in sim) is difficult here - just pressing the rudder pedals is much simpler.
And finally, they can be used to “slip” a plane during landing - a manouver used when you come in too quickly - you would push the stick to the left and step on the right pedal (cross) which brings your airplane into a sliding / drifting postion - working off all this extra energy (you can also see this when Airliners land into the wind).
So for all these reasons pedals are great. Well I could not fly without them - but also - recently finished my PPL (55 hours right now) and to compare it to IRL flying pedals are a must.
Finally, in airliners the steering on the ground is not even done using the pedals, they have something you call a “tiller” (Airbus and some Boings do) which steers the plane on the ground.
Sorry for the long post - just my 2 cents.
Nope… no rudder pedals here, I play 100% keyboard control.
All - as many have said never used them, my Virpil FSX grip has twist feature and use that. I have considered the Virpil pedals, but money. They also make flight throttles but I got the Honeycomb Bravo and that works fine. I do not as a rule fly GA aircraft. I fly 2/4 engine jets 99% of time. Yes the HC-BTQ is big, but, for the money it’s very good, been using for 9 months now so far satisfied with it. Virpil makes a throttle/switch panel, which might be smaller in size, and possibly more realistic in GA/Business Jets/Fighters. I have setup the HC-BTQ up for the DC Designs F-14, and it works good for that. I don’t have to even remove the extra two throttle handles, they are just ignored in the Sim. I also use FSX almost primarly now, and it works good in that sim as well, the configuration is ongoing so today think I got all the levers/switches working as they should in Virtivia C-17. At least my test TO/LDG the reverse thrust levers worked and the “armed spoilers” went up on touchdown. That has been work in progress for couple months. MSFS-2020 is off PC, mouse operated switches/buttons refused to work in every single plane where needed, and that has been ongoing since release last year, with one complete OEM Rebuild of PC and redownloading of the game. Formatted HDD too, so no old code. Using Logitech M570 wireless trackball, so it could be that. If Update on 7th goes well for all, will consider redowinloading game and giving it another go, will try wired mouse to see if that resolves issues, never considered my present one to be problem, no other software is affected period.