Saitek Three Lever Pro Throttle Quadrant (PZ45)
by Saitek
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List Price: Our Price: $49.84 You Save: $10.15 (17%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $40.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Saitek Three Lever Pro Throttle Quadrant (PZ45)
Customer Review: Can't imagine flying without it anymore - but didn't last too long...
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this throttle for my birthday. I had it on my wishlist for a long time but could not convince myself to buy it.
Well, now I'm glad I have it, actually, it's made the simulation so much more realistic. Spinning out of a parking spot with one engine, practicing single engine flying, and just alone the feel of having a somewhat realistic throttle in your hand adds a lot of realism. The fact that the leverage is very long also give you more precision when changing power settings.
The only problems I ran into are the setup. Saitek for some reason uses an auto calibration as soon as the joystick/throttle is deteceted when plugged in. After that, there is no calibrating via software manually. When you go to the Saitek forums, the majority of the problems are revolving about this auto-calibration issue. You would think Saitek would learn. Either way, the fix is quick, all you need to do is to delete the auto calibration entry from the registry, and it will re-calibrate again, usually this second time it does it perfectly. If you need more info, go to the Saitek website and their forums, you will find all the information there.
I also had to change the sensitivity and null zone settings in Flight Simulator 9, I recommend reading about this in the forums also, but I would say within 30 minutes I was flying and never looked back.
The quality of the joystick is quite good. It's made out of plastic but seems very sturdy. There are two ways to mount it to a surface, and I like that flexibility.
Overall I highly recommend this throttle. I do wish it had four levers, not three, although I do fly mostly twin engine jets, so that works well for me. The left lever is my speedbrake, the middle and right one are the two throttles. I programmed the speedbrake to "auto-arm" when pushed below the detent, and the throttles are programmed to go into thrust reverse when pushed beyond the detent.
Edit:
I have had this throttle quadrant for about a year and a half now. I had to re-calibrate it a few times. Turns out it's the actual throttle sensors going bad though. The throttles jump and skip and are unusable for flying and no calibrating helps any more. It's a shame, I really enjoyed it while it worked. I think I will go back and get a CH throttle, their equipment has always lasted forever. I would rate this throttle lower now due to the durability issue.
Customer Review: Can't Fly Without It
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a fan of computer flight simulation for about 5 years and loved every minute. I had one problem though, I would sit on the runway waiting for the plane to take off never understanding that I needed to rev up the engine, set the propeller RPM and fuel mixture until the plane got enough speed to take off. What a bore! But then I got these cool controls and away I went...into the sky.
Not really folks but this is by way of showing that these controls are the perfect thing for simulating these controls when you want to simulate the throttle, prop, and mixture controls of an airplane. They look good, work good, and also provide 6 clicker switches to map to other controls. I have these controls mapped to autopilot controls.
The device simply plugs into an available USB port but you will have to tell your game (flight simulator) how to use the levers and buttons but this is just like any other controller you might have. So after a little reading up with the help or Saitek web forums it's easy.
And if you are as big a dumb bell as I am they look cool anyway and if you are as old as I am, your grandkids will have fun playing with the. Pretty solid so you shouldn't worry.
Greg
Customer Review: A Very Sturdy and Solid Throttle Quadrant
Summary: 5 Stars
I had previous bought the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke system and was very impressed with the construction, much better than the CH yoke I have been using. So, I bought the Saitek Throttle Quadrant to add to it to give me multi-engine capability.
I mount it next to the other Throttle Quadrant and plugged it into one of the 3 spare USB ports on the yoke. MY system and FS9 saw it right away. It came with a bag of colored knobs for easy reconfiguration. I tested all the buttons with no problems.
Note: I did not load the software. I have tried this with the Yoke and FS9 would crash. I removed it, and they work fine without it.
I have taken many flights and used the Throttle Quadrant for several hours now without a single problem. Thanks Saitek for a solid product.
Also, This product was available thru ANTONLINE who were great in processing and shipping my order. Received my order in 4 days.
Customer Review: Great addition to Flight Simulator X
Summary: 5 Stars
This throttle quadrant is great. Works beautifully and adds another touch of realism to flight simming.
As for those people who have calibration issues, it just takes a little tweaking.
Initially, I had the same problem with the throttle and propellor levers but I figured it out.
As I moved the aforementioned all the way up and down, they would only register from about 21% to 79%, so I could not get the full range.
First, go to the Saitek website and download the latest drivers.
Second, in FSX, assign the throttle, propellor and mixture to the appropriate levers.
Third, in FSX, Controls, Calibration, set the Sensitivity for all three levers all the way to the right and set the Null Zone for all three levers all the way to the left.
That's it. Try it now and it should work perfectly.
Enjoy!
Customer Review: Added realism to flight simming
Summary: 5 Stars
A wonderful thing to have when simming. Inexpensive but gives a thrill to the simming experience..with the feel of actually controlling the airplane. and combined with another unit and configured to control all individual engines separately gives realism an added dimension. And combined with ability to configure the levers for different functions makes it possible to 'fly' different aircraft from the big jets to the props. The included throttle heads make up for the 'realism'. Easy and fun to configure and use. The toggle switches, though, feel a little fragile and almost as if they were about to fall off...could be more sturdily built and fixed.