5 Responses to “CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )”

1. Bill King says:

   March 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   Review by Bill King for CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )
   Rating:
   Under controller assignments ‘assign axis’ both Microsoft FS2002 and CFS2 menues allow assigning the up and down movement of the pedals to the toebrakes, right and left. Pushing (forwards and backwards) on pedals moves the rudder. It all works perfectly giving a variable analogue brake, the harder you push the more brake you apply. Taxiing the plane using rudder and brakes together works smooth and is easy to control. I velcroed the pedals to a large plywood sheet and attached the sheet to the desk legs with small angle brackets and machine screws. A large sheet so I could later move the pedals around to different positions on the board. I use this setup: Fighterstick USB, ThrottlePro USB, Pro Rudder Pedals USB, all CH branded. All 3 of these combine with CH’s software to make one huge virtual device. So if you then go to Windows control panel’s game control applet you see 1 device not 3. That one device has six axis and 32 buttons! Never calibrate it there (doing that will screw it all up). Instead ONLY calibrate it in the CH software. I assigned those six axes to: 1 HorizStickX 2 VertStickY 3 Wheel on the stick (Fuel mixture lean/rich), 4 Throttle, 5 Right brake, 6 Left brake. FS2002 would let me assign them to other controls if I had prefered).So far no problems with these fine CH products.
2. Michael R. Stiteler says:

   March 1, 2010 at 3:48 pm

   Review by Michael R. Stiteler for CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )
   Rating:
   PERFORMANCE: Flight Simulator recognized that I had both pedals and the yoke installed when it started up. I selected a Cessna 172 at JZI (pilot talk for Charleston Executive Airport on John’s Island, SC) and gave the system a try. My immediate thought was “Man! These pedal springs are light!” I took off my shoes to give me a better feel to start off with. My other thought was that the toe brakes are also very light, and they have more travel than I am used to on a real plane, a compromise of being able to use these pedals for driving as well. Teething Pains. I managed a reasonable roll down the runway, using the pedals effectively (I thought) for rudder control. But once I was in the air, the rudders were no longer effective. Back on the ground the differential brakes didn’t seem to be working correctly. Even with my feet off the pedals, the differential brakes were constantly coming on. THEN…I tried several times to set the sensitivities within Flight Simulator, hoping I could set a null zone to keep the pedals from being applied when I wasn’t pressing the toe brakes, but each time I tried this the system seemed to reset the settings to the defaults. It turns out that I had forgotten to disable the auto-rudder feature of Flight Simulator. The rudders are effective on the ground even with auto-rudder turned on, but differential braking is affected when you turn the yoke. Auto-rudder activated the differential brakes every time I turned the yoke side to side, which made me think the pedals were not properly set. Learning Curve. It took a few hours for my feet to remember how airplanes turn. To turn left, you step on the left pedal, and you step on the right pedal for a right turn, naturally. Maybe so, but we had a few trips off the runway before I could convince my dogs to cooperate. OVERALL IMPRESSION: Ultimately the pedals worked great. The sliding action is very realistic, and they enable me to perform all sorts of maneuvers that just can’t be done without them, like a full power takeoff in an Extra 300 aerobatic aircraft (so much power that without rudder controls the torque pulls you off the side of the runway!). I was also able to do full slips on landing, crosswind corrections, even aerobatics with vertical tail slides for almost 100 feet. See my website for a few photos of these great rudder pedals in action (I won’t post my site, but you can find it by looking up my name).
3. FSJUNKIE says:

   March 1, 2010 at 3:59 pm

   Review by FSJUNKIE for CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )
   Rating:
   This review will talk about both the CH Rudder Pedals and the CH Flight Yoke USB.

   I finally got around to purchasing these rudder pedals from Amazon after accepting that I was NEVER going to find this item in stores. (…)

   Getting to the point…these pedals are a must have for serious flightsimmers…especially if you own Microsoft Flight Simulator and like to fly general aviation or the large commercial heavies. I also purchased the USB CH Flight Yoke for $99.74; the difference these 2 items make to the simming experience can’t be stressed enough. If you ever got the guilty feeling after mastering the greased landing with the Boeing 747 or other heavy aircraft (the feeling that it’s unrealistically easy), then this is the next level. It takes a lot more concentration and coordination to master flight using yoke and rudder as opposed to just a joystick or keyboard…just keep your hands off the yoke while going down the runway or taxiing, and you should be able to keep things in order! You may also consider purchasing the CH Throttle; that’s going to be next on my list, because using the throttle controls as they are postitioned on the yoke are a little inconvenient for some aircraft that require constant changes in throttle position.

   Overall, I’m satisfied with the construction of the pedals; they weigh in at around 6 pounds and feel fairly solid and sturdy. The motion is fairly smooth with the application of both rudder and toe brakes. They work well. Not much more you can say about that. The same can be said about the construction of the yoke…fairly solid considering. I would like to have seen a little less tension on the yoke personally. Unless you are trimmed close to overtrimmed status, you have to give it a good pull to get airborne. I haven’t studied it long enough to see how that REALLY compares between heavy versus light aircraft. But again, I think that only speaks to the construction of the unit and the strength of the clamp setup; pulling back on that unit with a fair amount of force and the unit doesn’t budge from the desk. The yoke may take some getting used to based on where it will sit on your desk…in my case, there is about a half an inch beneath the fastened clamps to allow for my slide out keyboard tray, which was enough space in my case. I could see a potential problem in that area for others.

   I’ve read about complaints with the clamp system on the yoke, but I’d like to meet the guy that can think of a better solution to keep the unit stationary on your desktop…no problems with my particular desk and the clamps. What I’ve read is that people with lips or other unperfect edges may have problems since the surface area of the clamps is small. Again, not a problem with my particular desk. Another con that I read about and can somewhat concur with is the trim quality. I find myself having to adjust the elevator trim more frequently with changes in speed than with my joystick…on approach this can be viewed as a nuisance or part of the greater challenge. I’ll have to give it some time to decide on that one. It may be that it’s just easier overall with a joystick. I was looking for more realism and a greater challenge when I purchased the yoke and rudder.

   Installation was a breeze in Windows XP; just plug them in and they are ready to go. They come with a cd with any drivers that may not be installed already, and also games (so, I’ve heard…MSFS is my favorite past time, probably wouldn’t fly anything else that I don’t already own anyway). Another good thing about this unit and MSFS is that it is recognized as a separate controller. I have used the pedals in combination with the flight yoke as well as my Saitek X52 Flight Control system when I needed a joystick and not a yoke for flying fighters or even general aviation aircraft that have sticks and not yokes.

   Finally, both the yoke and rudder are a very good investment for the hobby. You’ll find yourself enjoying the hobby more and actually steering clear of the autopilot controls. Hope this gives you some things to think about.
4. A. Luptak says:

   March 1, 2010 at 4:20 pm

   Review by A. Luptak for CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )
   Rating:
   I use this product with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and have no problem with it. As a licensed pilot, these are possibly the best add-on I have ever bought to make my PC feel more like the real thing.

   I don’t know about using them for driving sims as a brake and accelerator ( I have a Logitech Wingman FF wheel that I use for that) But for flying sims, these are great.

   A must have for any die-hard flight sim fan!
   
5. Jason Adank says:

   March 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm

   Review by Jason Adank for CH Products Pro Pedals USB Flight Simulator Pedals ( 300-111 )
   Rating:
   Overall a good set of pedals. Generally good responsiveness and was picked up by my games (FS9/Battlefield2) with no major issues. The cost is good since I think its the cheapest set of rudders out there. Construction pretty solid overall.

   However, a couple of major annoyances for me.

   First, the pedals are so light, its easy to push them around under your desk and get them misoriented which is a major pain when in the middle of a heated battle or sim situation.

   Also, the heel cups are totally unrealistic as all real planes do not have them (your heel should just sit on the ground). I find that this means my legs are not totally relaxed like they are when I’m in a real Cessna, they’re always a bit tensed up because you’re having to keep them in the shoe cups.

   And finally, and this is my biggest pet peeve: The spring back to center is very weak. This is a real pain because you’re left having to “feel” for a center ridge click to know your rudders are centered again. If I’m not paying attention, the weight of my legs will cause one side or the other to push out slightly and affect my flying - hence why me legs are always tensed up.

   At the end of the day they’re still good overall. The sliding around issue could probably be fixed by mounting the system to something heavy or perhaps using Velcro to fix it to the carpet. Also I suppose one could hacksaw off the heel cups.. But I don’t think there’s a fix for the lack of spring to center forces… Honestly, if I could afford them, I’d rather own the Cirrus Rudder Pedals, but their also 5x the cost so… I eagerly anticipate the day where we can have pedals at a reasonable cost, and with solid (and realistic) performance