The Saitek Aviator AV8R-02 for Xbox 360 sucks

[dzyeph]

About to be on my 2nd attempt with this stick, the first one has the rudder constantly pulling me to the right, it's flyable but unbelievably annoying which is a shame, aside from that it's a lot more fun to use the stick. Support for other higher quality sticks would be nice (but unlikely).

The lack of a landing brake makes for some interesting landing attempts though, I can just about manage it with the stick but I need the full length of the runway to do it and involves lots of weaving and shooting to try and slow down, tis a somewhat bizarre sight.

[juz1]

Originally Posted by dzyeph

About to be on my 2nd attempt with this stick, the first one has the rudder constantly pulling me to the right, it's flyable but unbelievably annoying which is a shame, aside from that it's a lot more fun to use the stick. Support for other higher quality sticks would be nice (but unlikely).

The lack of a landing brake makes for some interesting landing attempts though, I can just about manage it with the stick but I need the full length of the runway to do it and involves lots of weaving and shooting to try and slow down, tis a somewhat bizarre sight.

pulling to right? Are you sure it's not counter rotational forces due to the prop? Most single prop planes all pull slightly to the right...
________
Fz150I

[FOZ_1983]

Originally Posted by juz1

pulling to right? Are you sure it's not counter rotational forces due to the prop? Most single prop planes all pull slightly to the right...

Try a training mission on realistic or sim, see if you have the pulling to the right.

Then try it on arcade and see if you still have it. If you dont have it in arcade then dont worry, its not your stick. Its the plane

[SL83]

Originally Posted by juz1

pulling to right? Are you sure it's not counter rotational forces due to the prop? Most single prop planes all pull slightly to the right...

Even in Arcade mode? Cause my stick was doing it in Arcade - and if I noticed it in Realism mode - I passed it off as physics being accurately represented in the game.

But in arcade mode - it was like the rudder was stuck.

Also my planes were pulling to the left.

[dzyeph]

Originally Posted by juz1

pulling to right? Are you sure it's not counter rotational forces due to the prop? Most single prop planes all pull slightly to the right...

It's the stick, if I go into the Hangar view, the rudder controls the zoom in and out of the planes view and it instantly zooms all the way in. Also, as previously pointed out, on Arcade it's still visible, with the slide to the right rather than the roll, definitely the stick.

[Chrester]

I got the stick a couple of days ago and its way better than the gamepad.
Although the deadzone is a bit irritating. Its hard to do the fine adjustments you sometimes need to do. The button layout will hopefully be better when we have the patch that let us customize the buttons layout.

Mine don't feel to quirky or flimsy, but i had to do the "zip tie trick" to make it more comfortable. The twist is to strong, i think i need to tape the wrist with some kind of tennis-grip tape.

But still its the best we can get for xbox 360 at the moment and after all, it does its job . . . with some small improvements

Does anybody got it to work properly on pc?
Either the trigger and blue button and the wrist dont work. Put it on mode1 and the trigger works but no throttle. The throttle works as a button

[Philosofrenzy]

I bought mine after being frustrated by the control layout on the demo (being used, as I was, to the north american layout of R/C planes and flight games. Right stick= elevators and ailerons). While I don't have the same pin-point precision of practiced xbox controller users, I find the actual maneuvering 95 percent of the time is just fine. And you get a POV hat, which is well worth suffering the deadzone in my experience.

Would I prefer the deadzone disappear? Yes, of course. Does this make it worthless? Nah. I seem to do well enough. I do find it amusing how the first response tore apart the claim to authority and objectivity the OP has, and his response was, essentially, "no, I'm not stating my opinion, I'm telling you how things are FOR REALZ."

[Chrester]

I went to the store today and bought some soft tape you can have around various things. Taped the wrist up good and now it feels really comfortable

That and the zip tie mod. Guess its as good as it gets now

And yes, the hat view is really good on the stick. And its analogue too.
You can pan the view as much as you like. Really good

[flynlion]

Originally Posted by juz1

pulling to right? Are you sure it's not counter rotational forces due to the prop? Most single prop planes all pull slightly to the right...

Engine and prop torque make an aircraft turn left, not right. That's why pilot's add right rudder when adding power for takeoff and climb, and why aircraft carriers always have the super structure on the right.

[Draupnir2]

Do some simple modding or rewiring of the Aviator guys, or even a full HOTAS redesign project like mine:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=10528

It is definately worth the effort, and saved the game from being shelved for me

During my study of the potentiometer input of the X360 i discovered that the original controller has an inherent deadzone in the way it reads the pots. That is probably why the 2 compatible sticks has this deadzone too. The less precise gamepad input conceals this phenomenon too a degree. If this shortcoming has a benefit, it must be that it eleminates the need for stick calibration.

Slightly OT: Now I am ready to make a set of more practical pedals. I have a pair of rugged metal sliders from a drawer, which can cater for the movement, and will try to hinge that up to the stick movement on the X360 controller in some way. I would think that a generous weight of the unit is a good idea too.

Any suggestions ?