Review on Logitech Saitek Flight Control System by Steven Adams

This is a first impression review after some use. Everything can change as embroidery time increases. First, God, these things are expensive. It's been years since I bought a flight controller for a game but I don't remember them being that expensive. So there were some pretty high hopes for this one. So at first I was a bit disappointed when the box arrived and saw that the shipper had simply put a label on the flight controller box. Considering the box was left on my doorstep for half a day for anyone to walk by, it was a $300 air traffic controller. Luckily the pirates on the porch were busy in another sector so my package was there when I got home. Installation was a little painful, but not for the reason you might expect. The USB cable does not come from the joystick, but from the throttle stick. Unfortunately for my setup, my computer is on the right side of my desk and the USB cable is on the left. This is usually not a problem, since modern devices usually have quite long cables. This is not. If my computer had been on the left side of the desk it wouldn't have been a problem, but since it wasn't it meant its cord was about two feet shorter. I'm lucky my monitor has two USB ports on the back so instead of running to the computer I just had to run to the monitor, I'm lucky. Here to take away. This thing has a short USB and is on the left side so keep that in mind when buying for your build. Following another reviewer's suggestion, I didn't install drivers for this device and wasn't prompted to do so, so it was a win. When I launched Elite Dangerous I expected the game to start working immediately and without any issues, but that didn't happen. The sympathizer was dead in the water. Go to the Control Panel to start the tedious process of mapping each command to the controller if I notice anything. In the drop down list of different configurations (I wanted to see if I could make my own) I noticed one called the Saitek X52. In fact, the game came preloaded with a setting for that controller. Well it was easy. The overall look of this thing is a little underwhelming for someone who rarely uses air traffic controllers. Some of the buttons feel a bit unintuitive and I still look at almost every button I press to figure out what I'm doing, but I've only had them for a day, so yeah. Build wise, this thing is muscular. The stick didn't seem to move on my mouse pad, but the throttle stick seemed to move over time and needed to be moved. I've tried suction cups on the throttle, but all I've done was eliminate jerky movements rather than gradual ones over time, which isn't unexpected. It's not annoying enough to slow down, but something worth mentioning. The LCD on the throttle isn't backlit by default (perhaps not really backlit), so it's almost impossible to see what's going on with it, other than the fact that it's also at an odd angle when you're at your desk. Besides, there's not much to say at the moment. This controller didn't turn out to be the best pilot in the game (losing a few ships proves that's not true), but to be honest I wasn't expecting that. We'll see how it goes and if it needs an update if needed.