Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedal Review
Ratings: Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25, Look & Feel: 21/25, Features & Software 20/25, How much I enjoy 22/25
Total: 87/100
Saitek has been putting joysticks and controllers into the hands of gamers for as long as I’ve been playing games on computers. Back in 1979 when there really was no such thing as flight sim enthusiasts Saitek started making computer peripherals and has been a leader in the market ever since. My recent review of the X52 Flight Control System and all its improvements over previous flight controllers shows the progress the company has made in keeping current with the needs and demands of gamers and the Pro Flight Rudder Pedals continue this gigantic tradition.
The Pro Flight Rudder Pedals are a no fuss solution for flyers who want rudder pedals with toe brakes in a convenient and easy to use package. The rudder pedals are adjustable for tremendous and small feet and are very simple to install. I unpackaged the Pro Flight Rudder Pedals and set them up under my desk with the included strips of Velcro to keep them from sliding around on my carpet.
There are rubber feet on the underside as well for smooth floors or two strips, both sides, of Velcro to attach to the bottom of your pedals using the adhesive side and indents on the bottom of the pedals. You can use the other part of the Velcro to attach to your floor to keep the pedals in place or like I did unprejudiced use the hook side of the Velcro and the carper acts as the other side, they stay put really well. I have to pull hard to get them off the floor to adjust their position.
The Pro Flight Rudder Pedals adjust by pushing in a pin and moving the toe portion of each foot pedal up or down for different sized feet. The pedals also adjust for tension using a round know in the middle of the pedals for more and less tension while involving the pedals back and forth. They do not adjust for more and less space between each pedal though. The Pro Flight Rudder Pedals also approach with two removable footrests that are nice for resting your heels on during flying those long missions. They snap onto the bottom of the base and add a place for you to place your heels and still be able to control the rudders and toe brakes easily.
Installation is easy, simply plug the USB connector into your USB plug on your computer and run the enclosed installation CD. This will install the drivers and SST program that controls the rudder pedals. If you already have any other Saitek product you will be familiar with the Saitek Sparkling Technology Program. This program installs and runs several drivers for any Saitek peripherals but if your installing just the pedals it will only install some of them. I had the X-52 curved up at the time so it went through the whole installation for that as well.
I removed the drivers and SST program to see what it would install and it asked if I did want to install the pudgy SST program. I chose to not install it and the rudder pedals have worked correctly in several different games using a different joystick. The drivers work for the pedals and they are correctly set up for the correct axis on many different games such as Flight Sim X, Combat Flight Sim 2 and Il-2 Sturmovik.
The installation was easy but the pedals work very well and are comfortable to expend while flying. To employ the joystick to control rudder and on ground steering is not exactly easy and many joysticks do just that. The simple addition of pedals eases this movement both in air and on the ground and makes flying not only more realistic but enjoyable. The pedals move forward and back easily but with a bit of noise as well so they are not exactly calm when using.
The movement back and forth has a tension adjustment between the two pedals and is easily adjusted by hand or foot. I can easily adjust the tension on the immense knob with one or both feet due to the size of the knob and the rubber bumps spaced evenly around the top. The braking is not affected by this tension adjustment.
The toe brakes are also a handy feature and is also very easy to set up in many games. In Flight Sim X, Combat Flight Sim 2 and the Il-2 games the brakes were site and ready to go but you may need to station them using the SST program. The Saitek Gleaming Technology Program is an easy to exhaust program for mapping the controls of a joystick, throttle and rudder to keyboard assignments and is pretty easy to use. The rudder is the easiest and you just follow the help portion for setting up any of the assignments.
For some games like MechWarrior 4 the use of rudders brings an extra axis to the control of the mech and adds more abilities to your fighting. You can use the rudders as the entire body turn and the joystick turn as the upper body turn to increase your effectiveness in futuristic combat. This brought an additional response to my fighting in the game and adds to the fun of mech fighting. I only wish they would come out with a newer version of MechWarrior with even better mech combat but the pedals are a nice addition to those types of games as well.
I have also used the Pro Flight Rudder Pedals from Saitek with the Hotas Cougar and they performed just as well with the two companies products. They work equally well using either joystick set ups and the programming does not change from one installation to the other. The rudders assignments stayed the same from removing the X52 Flight Control System to installing the Hotas Cougar. The SST Program that I had installed with the X52 I removed and reinstalled it after having installed the Cougar and the rudder pedals worked flawlessly with the new Cougar Hotas setup.
I really enjoy the feel and control I gain with the Pro Flight Rudder Pedals and they are very easy to use. The pedals are a sturdy, easy to spend and comfortable way to control both rudders and braking for any flying game.
I highly recommend the Pro Flight Rudder Pedals from Saitek for any flight enthusiast who wants the added control for rudders.
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Filed under Help Desk Software by on Jan 19th, 2012. 