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The Budget Flight Sim Guide: Part I
by Harold K. Schmulenson

Flight sims often tax your computer as well as your wallet. Like most people I am into getting the latest and greatest toys out there. The newest CPU, the fastest video card, the best joystick , all of these things can add up to quite a lot of money. The game companies are not immune to this either. Every new release seems to require huge amounts of hard drive space, enormous memory requirements, and the fastest CPU not even on the market. What happens when your wants far outstrip your budget ? The answer can be in finding the best combination of gear at the right cost.

Let's limit this article to joysticks and flight controls. The newest Thrustmaster gear provides excellent control, feel , and use. You can program almost any function to use at your fingertips. With the latest F-22 stick, TQS throttle and Rudder Pedals, your setup can run close to $400.00 or more. CH product offers a new Pro Throttle, F-16 Fighterstick, and Pro Pedals in the $300.00 class. Of course these figures and mileage may vary, but it is an estimation for our purposes. Are there alternatives for the budget minded ? Sure are ! You lose some of the control, but a lot of the cost .

Right now Thrustmaster has an entire line of new joysticks at a reasonable cost including the X-Fighter and Topgun sticks. Nice sticks at a competitive price. What happened to the FCS Mk. 2 ? Look for this classic at the bargain closeout bin. My local Wal-Mart is selling these beauties for $25 right now. They originally sold for $69.00 so this is a GOOD deal.

Do you want an even better deal ? It can be found. Look for Kay-Bee Toys, a chain of toy stores located in shopping malls. They carry closeouts on software at great prices( try EF2000 for $9.99 ) . Look hard and you may find this gem: TM FCS Mk.2 and Falcon 3.0 bundled together at Kay-Bee for $14.99. That is not a misprint either! I bought one and you can also. The drawback to the TM FCS Mk.2 is the lack of a built- in throttle. Use the money you saved to purchase the WCS Mk2. for $89.00 or so. If you are looking for an even better throttle deal consider the basic CH Throttle. This throttle is programmable only to itself and not to any attached joystick. Best Buy is currently discounting these to $49.00. For below $75.00 you can have a programmable throttle and joystick combination.

Attention all you lefties! Looking for the joystick you can use with your natural hand ? It still is out there. The CH Flightstick Pro. This one has it all, 4 buttons, a 4-way HAT and a built-in throttle wheel. OK, so the throttle slider is on the left side of the base, but further on I will tell you the secret of getting past this minor annoyance. The FS Pro has been superseded by the F-16 Combatstick, but is generally available for $49.00. A great buy with support in most sims.

Suncom is a name that has had its ups and downs. Now back in the market you can find the programmable F-15E Talon stick for $49.00. There are some places that are selling them as low as $25.00 ! This is THE programmable bargain. There are other sticks that remain a good bet. The Gravis programmable Firebird and the Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital all come to mind. Even the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro can be used. This is programmable under Windows 95 and includes throttle AND a rudder system ( twist motion of the handle ) . This stick can do it all, but the drawback is that it does not have a good feel for flight sims. You be the judge.

Rudder pedals really add to you game. A good set of Thrustmaster pedals are around $120.00. CH has Pro Pedals for $79.00. or so. The bargain here is the basic CH set for $49.00. Sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles. The pedals seem too close together. The difference is not only the low cost ( yet excellent quality ) , but the ability to use them in driving sims as well for brake and gas !

Now it is ULTIMATE bargain time. How I built the complete low cost joystick setup with programmable stick, a " HOTAS " throttle and rudder for under $30.00? This system runs off a dedicated gamecard ( a CH Gamecard 3 ) and has not been tested with a soundcard joystick port . Your results may vary, but it works for me.

My joystick is a programmable Suncom Talon, cost $19.99 at an Office Depot closeout. (If you look around you can find this same stick for about $35 US). Along with this a simple 2-axis, 2 button Kraft joystick for $1.00 purchased at the same time. This is hooked via a generic Y-cable ( $7.00 ) to my gamecard port. The second joystick has a spring disabling feature. Any simple stick will also do such as the CH Mach 1 series. In this instance, the fore and aft movement becomes your throttle slider and as a bonus the left and right movement become your rudders !

This is simple, cheap and effective. You must choose as your joystick selection in Windows 95 the CH FS Pro, and check the rudder pedals option. Of course, this setup will also work perfectly with the CH FS Pro instead of the Talon. This is non-programmable ,and the throttle slider is de-activated on the FS Pro. It is enabled on the second stick along with rudders. Hey lefties, remember what I said earlier in regard to the thumbwheel slider ? Just put the FS Pro to your left and the simple joystick on your right. You are now set to fly !

All the above has worked well and cheaply. Next time around we can try and sort out hardware options such as CPU's, motherboards and the rest to help round out your budget system. Have a safe flight !

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