Those people who love flight games are always looking for something new to enhance their experience. Saitek has been making game controllers for a long time. Let’s see if the Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals live up to the high quality Saitek puts into their other products.
Features
- Solidly constructed 3-axis pedals maximize flight sim realism by enabling foot control of the rudder function.
- Silent, smooth action for optimum control and precision.
- Self-centering pedals with adjustable damping
- Foot rests adjust to fit all sizes and include non-slip materials
- Tension adjustment – choose resistance to suit the way you fly
Everyone knows that in real airplanes you don’t control the rudder by twisting a joystick. Therefore, rudder pedals are a natural addition to a joystick and throttle. This addition allows you to play flight sim games with a greater sense of realism and accuracy.
Built almost completely out of plastic, with a little metal thrown in for looks and wear, the Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals looks like it is built to last. The rudder pedals don’t have a lot of fancy buttons or lights, but there is only so much that your feet can do.
Design
Like I mentioned above, the pedals are very basic when it comes to design. They look good, but they don’t do a lot. This is actually a good thing. You really don’t want to have to focus on what your feet are doing while also deciding which of the 100′s of buttons you need to press on your joystick.
The top of the rudder pedals is simple, you have the two pedals themselves and a tension adjustment knob. The pedals are locked together when you try to move them in a forward and backward, rudder movement. This means that when you move one pedal forward the other goes backward. I have never flown a real plane, but I assume they hooked the pedal movement together because real planes are like this. You can also press on the toe of the pedal to apply a break-like function. Each pedal moves independently during these movements, so you can have each pedal do something different. Each pedal has several soft rubber non-slip strips attached to the toe and heal area. This prevents your foot from slipping out during use.
Each pedal can also be adjusted for bigger feet. There is a small metal button in the center of each pedal that you can press in and then slide the top portion of the pedal up to make it bigger.
Small
Medium
Large
Small
Medium
Large
The tension knob is very straight forward. Turn it to the right for more tension and turn it to the left for less. This only adjusts the tension of the rudder movement and not the breaking movement. The knob is very easy to move so it is easy to make small adjustments.
Tension Knob
The bottom of the rudder assembly is very basic also. It is almost a solid sheet of black plastic except for eighteen small rubber no-slip pads. There are also two extenders that you can attach to the top of the rudder assembly under the pedals. These extenders add two more rubber pads each and add more surface area to help prevent slippage. These pads alone do a good job of preventing the rudder from slipping, but in case you still have problems there are also two long areas where you can attach the included Velcro strips. The point of the Velcro is to prevent the pedals from moving around on the floor when you are using them. Honestly though, who would want to attach Velcro to their tile, wood, or vinyl floor just for pedals? Every time you need to remove the pedals you are left with strips of Velcro on your floor. Because I did not want to attach Velcro to my floor I did not attach these strips, so I don’t know how well they work.
Bottom
Top
Extensions
Contents
Saitek also includes their SST programming software. This allows you to add a lot more functionality to the rudder pedals. For example, you could program the pedals for use in other games like, first person shooters, so that when you press down on the pedals you run. This makes it so you don’t have to press another key on your keyboard.
When you first open up the software you will see the screen split in two main sections. On the left of the programming screen is a 3D representation of the rudder assembly. If you want you can move the picture of the rudder around by clicking on it and dragging the mouse around. When you want to program a motion, you can either click one of the pedals on the screen, or to make it even easier, just push the pedals on the rudder. Either way, the software then jumps you to the appropriate slot in the table on the right. All you do then is click in the empty space and enter the key press you want that button to correspond to.
SST Software
Performance
Setting up the rudder is really easy. With Saitek’s easy to install drivers the process it quick. If you have a previous version of the drivers installed, the software will first uninstall them which will require a reboot. The install of the SST programming takes a bit longer because it has to install several new devices.
Using the pedals is easy, but it requires a bit of time for you to get used to them if you have never used a rudder before. I had not used a rudder before, so the experience was enlightening. Because I never had rudder pedals before I would usually ignore the rudder functionality. This really left out a lot of functionality. Now that I use the rudder, things go a lot smoother. The joystick I use, Saitek X52, also has twist rudder functionality. I had to disable the rudder functionality on my joystick so they did not conflict.
| Rudder Motions |
I installed the demo of Flight Simulator X and was off and flying in no time. The pedals themselves performed exactly like I expected. The movement was smooth and responsive. The pedals automatically centered every time I released them. I mapped the break motion to the wheel breaks and they worked great also. The rubber pads on the bottom kept the rudder on the floor and un-moving. If I got too aggressive they would move a bit, but I hardly ever needed to get aggressive with rudder pedals. If you find yourself getting aggressive more often than you like, you may want to look into attaching the Velcro straps.
Warranty and Support
As with all of Saitek’s products there is a two year warranty on the X52. This is decent, but I keep hoping that more companies will offer lifetime warranties.
Conclusion
Now that I have used rudder pedals, I cannot imagine not having them. With the programming software these pedals become so versatile that the can be used for non-flight sims. The retail price of $149.95 is a bit high, so you really need to be a serious flight sim player. The Saitek rudder pedals can be purchased from either Newegg or Amazon
| JusTech'n editors' rating | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||
Click here to go to the forum for this post
Loading ...
I would like to say that Saitek rudder pedals outperform everything else, but they do not. I am long time real world and flight sim pilot. I purchased a set of Saitek rudder pedals and almost immediately they jammed with full right pedal. Saitek replaced them, the second pair jammed the same way within an hour. Saitek replaced them a third time and within 10 minutes they jammed. Each time I sent them back the return shipping cost me $27. Saitek never once offered any refund or solutions to the problem other than to just keep sending me the same problem over and over despite my suggestions. I feel they are too light of construction even though they are nice looking and are spaced properly. I also had many problems with the installation software that left me with a constant aileron flutter problem resulting in loss of control. I was never aggressive with them (virtual airline, no combat) as I’ve used rudder pedals on my sims for many years. In the end, out of total frustration, I tossed the last set in my attic and bought a set of CH rudder pedals, a little narrow, but they have worked smooth, without any problems for the last 1000 hrs. In all fairness I also currently use Saitek’s HOTAS X52 setup, they’ve worked great. I just wouldn’t waste my money and time on their rudder pedals.
loading...
Hi,
I read your report about saitek rudder pedals, that they are peace of crap, but You told that CH is better.
I have one question: Can be used Saitek flight Yoke+throttle+CH pedals together?
If yes, then do I need some special software (saitek or CH or someone else) or it is ok with FS9 or FSX?
Thank`s a lot budy.
loading...
I am having problems with them, for some reason this pedal s control my Yoke so when I press the pedal my yoke turns in that direction, by my Yoke I mean the one in the screen and if I press any toe while in the air the plane goes nose down in one case and in the other case increase my acceleration and turn, I sent an email to Saitek about this and so far I haven’t hear anything from them, i was thinking about bying the CH model just to avoid that interference between the two product from the same company, I have almost a week with them and I haven’t been able to have a single fly without problems.
loading...
It sounds more like a problem with the mapping of the actions, rather than a problem with the pedals. You just need to remap the pedals to perform the correct action. You should be able to do this in the game under the controls settings.
loading...
Thanks for you answer, I’ve tried several set up with no luck but I can tell you that being this my first time with this harware I don’t know much how to handle that kind of problems, but I’ll keep trying and trying until I find the answer or run out of options, I ask Saitek to send me the ideal set up for FSX but like I said no answer form them, today i was trying to assign the toe function to brake only but I couldn’t change but when FSX ask my to press the key to assign the new function I press the pedals, toes in this case and nothing happen, so I will see if I can find another way to resolve this.
loading...
You may also want to try Saitek’s own programming software. It can be downloaded from their site.
loading...
Thanks again for your help, I downloaded the software but most importantly is that I found in Control Settings the cause of this problem, it ws a bad assigment in the keys I deleted this assigment and now the rudders are working almost perfectly the only remaining problem now is that because I delete the toe function I haven’t been able to assign it to the brake function like it was suppose to be from the begginig, I am so glad I found this review, again thanks for your help and I’ll keep you post on my progress on this.
loading...
TOMMY!!! SAME PROBLEM HERE!!! Here goes- When I depress the pedals (yoke is untouched)- the X/Y axis move. When both toe brakes are depressed, the elevators go up and the ailerons deflect full right! It is not a mapping problem. From the software provided to configure and calibrate, there seems to be no OBVIOUS solution. I am with you. PLEASE let me know if you find one! I will look myself and let you know as well!
loading...
Tommy— FIXED THE PROBLEM — Here it is! I’m using FSX, however, it should work in FS9 also.
NOTE: calibrate the Yoke WITHOUT touching the pedals!
1)Open your SETTINGS/CONTROL panel
2)Select Control AXES
3)From drop down menu (FSX) select Saitek Pro
Flight Rudder Pedals
4)Assign your BRAKE (L and R) to the TOE brakes.
5)Ensure your Rudder axis is ASSIGNED to RUDDER.
This is close to what you did, HOWEVER, this got me ful range of my pedals, as well as toe brakes!! Good luck and fly it like you stole it!
loading...
My set up is just like you just said, but in order to get my the toe brakes working I had to also click on the reverse box on axes(that’s for the toes), if I don’t do that I have to press the toe to release brakes and when I am not pressing the toe the plane is on brakes, so clicking on reverse makes all this backwards and the toes work just fine.
loading...
I think have mapped everything correctly, I have clicked the reverse box on the right, but when I press the left or right toe, the brakes come on BUT THEY DON’T RELEASE when I release the toes. What exactly do you map the left and right toe to in the rudder pedals?
Thanks
loading...
In control axes I asigned Left and Right brakes toe the corresponding left and right toe, I clicked the reverse box for each of them, then in the calibration window I gave them full sentitivity and zero null zone. Make sure you erased all wrong asigment for previous set up, not doing this may cause some conflict like the one you have now.
Do this and let me know how it goes, I’ll be glad to help you until you get this working.
loading...
Thanks for this answer, I also asigned toe brake to my pedals but for some reason at the beggining of the flight I start with parking brakes on until I touch the pedals, I will check my set up against yours to make sure everything is like it should be as soon as i get home, I don’t know why we had thoses mapping problems but it is easy to fix once you know what to do.
Thanks again for this info, I’ll let you know how it goes.
loading...
Well… Welcome to the world of Rudder Pedals and FS! I don’t know how to get rid of that annoying “BRAKES” signal. I don’t think it goes away ever. I have seen other setups with the same problem! If you find out, let me know… BTW- Sometimes you may have to tap the toe brakes to release the grip to taxi/ takeoff (you’ll only need to once)
FOR EVERYONE– I just started up a TAMPA PILOTS of MYSPACE group. Show your support, and sign up!!! http://www.myspace.com/tampapilotsofmyspace
loading...
I had the same problem and that’s why I clicked reverse, because it was releasing the brake only when I apply full brakes, by clicking reverse i fix the problem and now my peddals are braking just when I apply the toe brake, try this and you’ll be able to fix this annoying problem.
loading...
Hi all
I got same problem with toe brakes, but my main concern is the full movement of the rudder.
When I perform the calibration, the red bars move as spected. But into FSX things are different. Once I apply pressure, here it comes! Full left or full right, nothing in the middle. So, coordinated banking is a mess without autorudder!
Any suggestions?
loading...
Probably this have something to do with the sentitivity, try adjusting it until you are confortable with it, I had more or less the same problem and then I notice that sensitivity was to high, I found this to be a greater problem with light plane like the C-172 now what I am doing is applying just a little bit of pressure in the rudder and getting use to this, i also notice that the behavior while taxing it was ok but it was too sensible while flying, if this is not your case, give me some more details so I can recreate the same conditions in my PC and let you know my findings
loading...
Hi Tommy, Thanks for your answer.
It is more or less your case, except for the sensitivity.
In my case, sensitivity is placed at minimum. Null zone has been placed in different positions but I still have the same effect (full rudder).
I´m not an expert in flight sim hardware, but I guess that “rudder signal” is “too high” for the program. No matter which axe (i.e elevators)I select, as well as sensitivity – null zone settings, is always the same: full up and down movement.
Comments, suggestions…are very welcome!
loading...
I went through almost the exact same scenario that the original poster described. I would not recommend these pedals to anyone after that fiasco. $100 for the purchase and $50 some odd later in shipping for replacements, all I have to show for my troubles is a boat anchor in the shape of rudder pedals. This last pair of pedals I gave up on shipping to Saitek and have been taking them apart myself to unjam them. The shipping is cheaper and it doesn’t leave me with down time waiting for new ones.
They would probably be 100% better if they put a little more money into the materials they use. From taking it apart myself, I have noticed that the jamming problem stems from the fact that they seem to be prone to jumping the tracks that the rollers follow. After a few times of that happening, the (cheaply and weakly) molded plastic track breaks.
The track should probably be aluminum or a better quality plastic. In addition, the bearings, not the rollers themselves, should be lubricated. I believe that the grease-like lube that they use attracts dust/dirt which eventually builds up and makes the rollers jump the track and jam up.
For a product that sits on the floor and is intended to be used by your feet, I do not feel that this product has been constructed with durability in mind.
Other than that, when the product was actually working properly, they performed nicely.
loading...
Same here with original poster and Daniel. I’ve spent the last hour trying to “un-jam” these poorly made pedals. I have used CH products before, but gave these a run due to a good review I read. However, a strong crosswind landing in a KingAir 350 was all it took for these to jam full pedal deflected to the right. 20 screws later and the base can’t come all the way off, so my sausage fingers are struggling to put them back on their tracks. I’m ready to give up and buy CH products. CH products should probably give Saitek some money for referral sales…
loading...
Don’t count too much on CH pedals, they have really bad toe braking issues and they have a problem shortly after they break in, where the rudder no matter how much calibrating continually drifts to the left. Even if you use the CH control manager it goes out of sink. I’ve returned them twice and it is pointless now…
loading...
I’ve used my Saitek succesfully for about a month and then the pedals jumped tracks. The fragile wires inside broke, I called Saitek and they sent out a kit for the track guides. I found the broken wire and fixed it. I found another way to jump the tracks for the rudder and took it apart and fixed it. I reassigned the preset functions in FSX for the toe pedals. Then using all the comments on the internet I tried unsuccesfully to get the brakes to release after applying except by applying the parking break and then releasing with the period. The wire in the right toe broke again and I jumpered that one with a new wire. It took some calibrating and got it to work again. Then I had the bright idea to load the SST software and drivers from the Saitek site and now I have no wizzard to calibrate the rudders or the X52 stick so the plane drifts to the left. Once more the pedals jammed and they are disconnected. I tried to uninstall the SST but no change. After the 24 screw exercise, I will probably try to solve the calibration on a different computer and try to get the brakes to work.
loading...
I have the same Problem with rudder pedals in FS2004 I’ve got either full rudder or no rudder at all, nothing in between. I’ve also tried all combinations of null zone and sensitivity settings but I don’t think that’s got anything to do with it. All other controls work fine but rudder in the air and taxiing on the ground is a total mess.
+Opa
loading...
Hi Opa
Some time ago, I had the same “full rudder” problem.
Finally I solved but in a radical way: formatting my hard disk and reinstalling everything from zero.
This time, I was more carefull and plugged all controls (yoke, flight quadrant, rudders) one by one. After that, my pedals works nice as well the rest of the flight sim hardware.
The only thing that you need to know is to set your toe break in reverse axe (in your FSX control settings)and put the sensitivity a little bit slow than full as well apply some null zone.
Good Luck and happy flight
loading...