Comments on: Review: Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals

By: Jesus Padilla

Jesus Padilla — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:02:12 +0000

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

By: Opa

Opa — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:25:50 +0000

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

By: Capt'n Bob

Capt'n Bob — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:07:14 +0000

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.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:48:48 +0000

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…

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:47:38 +0000

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…

By: Daniel Messa

Daniel Messa — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:46:54 +0000

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.

By: jesus padilla

jesus padilla — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:53:11 +0000

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!

By: Tommy Vittini

Tommy Vittini — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:20:37 +0000

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

By: jesus padilla

jesus padilla — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:38:36 +0000

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?

By: Tommy vittini

Tommy vittini — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:02:36 +0000

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.

By: Tommy Vittini

Tommy Vittini — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:48:48 +0000

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.

By: Robert Quinn

Robert Quinn — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:46:54 +0000

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)

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By: Pepe Ortega

Pepe Ortega — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:09:08 +0000

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

By: Tommy Vittini

Tommy Vittini — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:49:08 +0000

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.

By: Tommy vittini

Tommy vittini — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:20:36 +0000

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.

By: Robert Quinn

Robert Quinn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:15:28 +0000

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!

By: Robert Quinn

Robert Quinn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:03:18 +0000

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!

By: Tommy vittini

Tommy vittini — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:18:46 +0000

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.

By: Ryan McLaughlin

Ryan McLaughlin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:05:28 +0000

You may also want to try Saitek's own programming software. It can be downloaded from their site.

By: Tommy vittini

Tommy vittini — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:54:28 +0000

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.