Calibration of Saitek Yoke Flight System

[Rafal Bardel]

Hi fellow pilots,

I've recently become a "happy" owner of a Saitek Flight Pro Flight System (Yoke + Throttles) and went throught a bit of a struggle getting it working properly, so instead of enjoying a new dimension of virtual flying I was on a verge of sending it back to the shop. After two weeks of experimenting and searching through various fora I think (hope) it's finally working.
The biggest issue was self-decalibration of the yoke during the flight at totally unpredictable moments (x-axis moving to the right) and at irregular intervals. Temporary solution was to unplug it and plug it back. Until the next dift ... :wall:

I wonder if any of you have had a similar experience to share. :wonder:

Regards to all,

 

[Peter Schindler]

I wonder if any of you have had a similar experience to share. :wonder:

Short answer: Yes!
Although my problems are a bit different from yours. It's not the calibration but the control logic. For example I turn the yoke to roll left or right, and suddenly the gear goes down, or the flaps, or I find myself in spot view. :envy: Things like that. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it can be quite annoying.

But I know I'm not alone. I bought the stuff in 2007 and, at the time, Saitek admitted that there was a construction fault in a "certain series". Seems they are still there in current series, coming in different flavours
Some say switching to another mode would help. If you believe in supernatural forces, this might work - but not really... :rofl: Something that really helped a bit was to shut down the Saitek Profiler. With FSUIPC you don't need it anyway.

I also use the Saitek rudder pedals, and I'm really pleased with those. Solid construction and no problems here. The nice thing is not so much the rudder (unless you hand-fly a lot) but the differential toe-brakes.

 

[Rafal Bardel]

I spent a good few moments on Saitek forum and others. And while I was looking to find a solution to my calibration drift, I also noticed many people reporting your problem.
I found my yoke to "switch" sth on/off while being moved.
I don't use the profiler (or STT software). I switched the yoke to mode 2 (all assigments are the same), and found in the FS assignments that some functions were assigned to buttons 9, 10 and 11 of the yoke. In fact these are "phantom" ones and they are not physically present. I removed the assignemnts and ... so far so good. :idea:

Unfortunately the pedals are waiting until my wallet grows thicker, so I regrettably I cannot share this experience with you. But I'm using the Aviator Saitek joystick for rudder on the ground - funny thing - twisting the joy makes the yoke work as a steering wheell on the ground. And I get a few extra switches to assign "at pilot's dicretion". The only thing it needs to be connected to the computer via separate USB socket, not through the yoke, unless power supply is plugged into it. 8)

Best regards,

 

[Peter Schindler]

I removed the assignemnts and ... so far so good. :idea:

Good luck with it, Rafal! I keep my fingers crossed. Tell me about your experiences in a few weeks and I might question you again on how you did set up the reverse thrust. Because I can't remember how I did it with the throttles