Does anyone have a suggetion for an realistic (but preferably affordable) centre stick that has a response and motion similar to light aircraft like the DA20? My impression is that most joysticks on the market are rather designed to emulate a fly by wire (centre or side) stick and have more tilt and less range of motion than a typical aircraft stick.
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Would really be interesting to kniw. The only sticks I’ve come across that even can be used as center sticks are the TM Warthog and the Virpil base.both can be used with extensions. Woukd be interesting to hear about some experiences
Buy a reasonable joystick and make your own. Not that hard if you are a bit handy. All you have to do open handle cut wires in the middle of wiring , mount body on a heavy piece of wood. Measure how long you need it extend handle. Find a plastic tube slightly bigger that will fit over bottom tube extend the wires ( mark all wires on both sides before you cut then so that when you join them again they are joined to the same wire. ) fit back together again .You will have to modify the handle to fit the new tube size and you will have a long handled joystick. Hope this makes sense. Cheers mike.
Thanks for the suggestion. That’s what I wanted to avoid, however.
Plus, if I add more mass and a long stick (lever), the restoring force from the spring will be pretty weak. Then I’d need to add additional springs, which makes it a bigge project and makes it hard to properly balance them.
And the Warthog stick plus extension does not quite fall into the category “affordable” anymore.
That’s a gap in the market since the dawn of FS, it’s either compact joysticks or yokes and nothing for vintage biplanes or Cubs/Robins/etc. I had the same desire when I got the SIAI Marchetti for X-Plane and thought about building a full cockpit for it because the model would probably warrant that effort and committing to a single plane, and learned there’s at least one option after all now, but the price sure hurts:
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Both Virpil and VKB make joystick/gimbal bases which can be used with extensions and centre mounted.
Virpil WarBRD Base.
Metal construction.
Extension not recommended.
Centre mount possible.
Option of different cams and springs. (Ships with aviation sim cams which provide increasing actuation force as you move away from centre to mimic forces on control surfaces)
Virpil CM2 Base.
Metal construction.
Extension possible.
Centre mount possible
Optional cams + springs (ships with all cam + spring variants included)
Quick tension adjust capable.
VKB Gunfighter.
Metal construction.
(I know less about this gimbal but it continually gets a lot of praise. Possibly the best mid range gimbal on the market?)
Extension possible I think.
Centre mount possible.
Features a dry clutch.
Best place to ask about it is r/hotas
(Worth noting. The VKB MCGU is the most desirable grip at this class on the market. If I were buying a grip and gimbal today I would be looking at a VKB Gunfighter gimbal and MCGU grip)
WinWing.
Fairly new kid on the block.
I have no hands on experience with these but they are designed for centre mount, feature metal construction gimbal’s and seem ok.
Can probably be extended.
(WinWings own mounting hardware looks a bit cheap though. I would probably go with MonsterTech mounts if I were to try the WinWing kit.
Warthog
the grip is metal.
The base is plastic.
- it’s an old design and while it used to be a “premium” product it’s not really in the same league as the VKB and Virpil gimbal’s.
In fact as some would put it, it’s just a T16000 in a fancy dress. The gimbal is a basic ball and spring afair which doesn’t mimic increasing aerodynamic forces on control surfaces.
It can be extended and centre mounted.
I’m using a Virpil CM2 base with a 200 mm extension. The cams and springs shipping with the base allow a wide range of adjustments. I’m using it mainly as an helicopter cyclic (Bell 47G). One of the handiest features is the desk mount system. You can set it where you want (mine is centered), and adjust the height at you convenience (I mounted it low, the extension giving me the extra precision I needed). So far, I’m quite happy with this set up.
Athough the T16000M is a very precise joystick the Gladiator NXT is at least a 200% improvement with it’s heavily dampened centering.
Perfectly suited for flightsims IMO.
One option to explore is finding an X55 Rhino HOTAS. the stick can already be removed to swap out springs (or not even use a spring) so the connectors are there ready to be extended. It is a project I may take on myself soon with mine pictured here
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You could build your own.
I purchased a Speedlink Airrow stick (European license-made VKB Gladiator) and was easily able to convert it to a full length stick.
The stick is a copy of the type used in the Messerschmitt 109, so not exactly modern - but it’s very sensitive and the calibration is excellent. It just happens to have a central support cylinder that is the exact diameter of UK water pipes, so it was a cinch to make a full length conversion, using a couple of short straight pipes and an S-pipe fixed together. Then I made a wire to extend the connection from the stick to the base, running through the pipes.
Took me one afternoon.
You lose the twist rudder, but that’s of no real consequence if you have pedals. I made a video of the complete conversion/modding process but never got around to uploading it.
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VKB Gunfighter.
Thanks to the dry clutch, it can also be nice used for helicopters, as it can remain in the position where you let go of it.
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