Moza launched its new entry-level MTQ Throttle Quadrant alongside the AB6 force-feedback stick. Instead of chasing a hyper-realistic replica of a specific aircraft type, Moza bet on flexibility. It leaves one big question: Can the MTQ’s versatility elevate your sim experience, or does it feel soulless and gimmicky?
Even at a lower price point, the MTQ arrives in packaging that looks clean, intentional, and retail-ready. Inside, a molded pulp shell holds the throttle and accessories neatly in place. The combat style throttle lever set, USB cable, small screwdriver, Allen wrench, RJ45 cable, and quick start guide are all individually bagged and protected. The molded-pulp clamshell gives the unboxing a hangar-tool feel, which works for the MTQ’s utilitarian design language.
Think of the AB6 as a Lexus and the MTQ as a Toyota. Both follow the same sturdy and intentional design philosophy, but the latter has fewer luxury refinements. The MTQ still feels well thought out, just to a different cost target.
While the MTQ’s housing is made of fiber-reinforced plastic, it doesn’t feel chintzy or cheap. All 4 lever arms are made of metal, with the middle two housing electrical contact points for spring-loaded pins housed inside the throttle handles. This type of connection makes accidental damage when swapping out handles much less likely.
Looking down into the housing, it looks like Moza attached mini circuit boards to each lever acting as 90-degree cable junctions, which is a clever way to reduce strain and prolong the life of the wiring.
The two middle levers are the only ones intended to be used as throttles. The leftmost lever functions as a speed brake with a non-removable clicky tactile “arm” detent approximately 10% into the travel range. The detent can be configured to act as a button input, opening up some additional mapping flexibility.
The rightmost right lever functions as a flap handle. It features 5 non-removable tactile detents with a spring-loaded “clicky” feel. The flap handle can be mapped as an axis, 5 separate button commands for each flap position (0,1,2,3, and 4), or a mix of both where the axis remains mappable while sending button commands simultaneously.
The two middle throttle levers offer the greatest detent customizability. With the stock TQF (combat-style levers), a removable metal bar between the two levers interfaces with the finger lifts on the bottom of the throttle levers to give you an IDLE/OFF detent at the rear, along with an afterburner detent at around 80% of the forward limit of travel.
These are active detents that require you to raise the finger lifts in order to advance or reduce the throttle position. Inside the software, you can configure the throttle so that the travel range stops at the rear detent and sends out a button command (useful for idle/off in military jets). You can also have the throttle operate in “mixed mode” by sending out button commands at the finger lift positions while retaining the full axis travel. The other lever sets, including the Airbus-style TQA and Boeing-style TQB, have their own detent philosophies that are covered further down.
Although the MTQ looks combat-focused, its main panel layout is type-agnostic, if biased towards jets. There are 6 clicky backlit rubberized buttons labeled with autopilot functions, 4 unlabeled buttons that have a tactile “bump” when pressed, 3 toggles (1 of which is a mini landing-gear style lever), a spring-loaded left-right toggle, 2 endless rotary encoders with a center “press” function, and a 5 position switch. It’s a compact but well-distributed layout designed for modern, automated aircraft workflows.
The two encoders have full metal stems, while the 5-position switch has a metal outer stem. The toggle switches have a solid feel to them without being overly heavy to actuate. This might be Moza’s entry-level throttle, but it feels like the lower price point came from deliberate engineering compromises rather than making everything as cheaply as possible. In other words, they spent money on the touchpoints that matter.
Moza MTQ TQF Combat-Style Levers
The TQF combat-style levers ship with the MTQ and bring the most controls of any set. These levers follow a typical HOTAS design language, meaning they’re only intended to be used by your left hand alongside a right-handed stick. The right lever features two 4-way hat switches, a spring-loaded 3-way switch for speed brakes, and a mini-stick on the front for use as a TDC/SLEW controller. The left lever features a single button with a light “clicky” press and an endless rotary encoder in the pinky position for things like radar-elevation.
The TQF are the only levers available for the MTQ that allow you to lock them together for use as a single throttle. Out of the box and in handling, they feel surprisingly light. However, one tap on the plastic reveals it’s reinforced with some kind of stiff composite. The thin glossy line of plastic around the textured grip surface at the top gives the levers a satisfying “utilitarian” look.
The TDC mini-stick is surprisingly precise, and I enjoyed the abundance of hat switches to map different controls to, perfect for the F-18 or even an impromptu helicopter collective. Despite the levers’ size, they’ll work for a wide variety of hands thanks to the compact button layout. There’s enough differentiation in size, texture, and position of the hat switches to make muscle memory building easy for VR pilots, too.
Moza made the right call shipping the TQF levers alongside the MTQ. They offer the most control capability, and the finger-lift gates are satisfying to use, even if they shorten the mid-range usable throw. The lift-gates can be easily disabled by removing the middle detent-bar, which dramatically extends the usable throw.
MOZA MTQ TQA Levers
The TQA set is where the MTQ’s modular design really comes alive. They’re playful, tactile, and cleverly engineered.
They come in their own compact box about the size of a video game disc case and maybe 30mm thicker. The levers are individually wrapped and packed flat in a molded plastic tray, which is appropriate for the price point and weight of the product. Installation is quick: push each lever onto its post and secure the two middle levers with one screw each.
There are only two buttons on the TQA levers, a red A/T disconnect switch on both left and right throttles. This means pilots can choose to use them with either a stick on the right hand or the left hand, breaking from HOTAS convention.
What sets the TQA levers apart is the detent system. A tiny, spring-loaded bearing in each lever rides along a metal rail built into the base, hitting detents for climb, flex, and TOGA with satisfying clicks. The rail is slightly offset on the left and right side, so the system only engages with the TQA levers.
Moza even repurposed the TQF’s idle/off gate in the TQA, requiring you to lift reverser paddles to access two more clicky detents for idle and max reverse. It’s a smart way to add immersion while reducing design complexity.
The TQA levers aren’t the most realistic in terms of size and detent geometry, but that’s not their mission. They’re designed to be fun, intuitive, and immersive, and they deliver on that experience. It’s refreshing to see manufacturers bring a level of creativity to hardware, especially in the budget realm.
My only gripe with the TQA is that the levers must be pushed fully onto their posts to get the clearest detent feel. If they sit even slightly high, the clicks feel muted. Because the tolerances between the base and the levers are tight, seating them perfectly can take a bit of trial and error.
MOZA MTQ TQB Levers
The TQB Boeing-style levers take a simpler, detent-free approach. They’re slightly longer than the TQA levers, which means, in stock configuration, the TQB levers offer the longest throw. Packaging is identical to the TQA levers, albeit slightly thicker to accommodate some extra width.
Like the TQA set, the TQB levers support left or right-handed use thanks to individual A/T disconnect and TOGA switches on each throttle lever. They also feature functional reverser handles that output individual button presses for both the left and right levers.
Hitting the TOGA button and hearing the GE-90’s roar is much more satisfying than hunting for a mouse click spot or a keyboard command. The longer throw gives you finer control on approach and makes hand-flying feel smooth and deliberate.
For non-Airbus style aircraft, the TQB levers quickly became my daily drivers thanks to their longer throw length. The only quirk with the TQB set is that because they sit so far aft at idle, they partially obscure the upper rotary knob on the MTQ’s panel.
In Boeing-style jets, the non-removable detents on the flaps axis didn’t affect the ability to select precise flap positions, but it did put cracks in what was otherwise a pretty immersive tactile experience.
Software
Moza Cockpit unlocks all of the MTQ’s detent, lighting, and button mapping features. With just one click on the throttle icon, controls are laid out on one page without millions of submenus to sort through. Another nice touch is that the button tester and home display of connected devices automatically detects what lever set you have installed and shows the corresponding pictures. Flight simulators pick up the different button inputs between each lever set, but they do not register them as different devices, so you’ll need to create separate mappings for each set.
You can set the 6 backlit buttons to static, breathing, or telemetry-based lighting effects like landing gear or autopilot state in almost any color you wish. In the future, I would love to see sim-synced cockpit brightness, but the current color options are plentiful and easy to configure.
I would also like to see some more intuitive layer-switching functionality built into the MTQ.
Those familiar with advanced mapping techniques can easily use the 5-position switch as a “modifier” since each position selection results in the corresponding “button” registering as constantly “on” until the switch is moved to another position.
All in all, Moza nailed the software component of the MTQ by making the UI simple and easy to access.
Livability and the MTQ Experience
The MTQ feels intentionally designed to fit into real, cluttered desks and multi-purpose setups by balancing compactness and capability. The footprint (length and width-wise) amounts to roughly two Xbox controllers.
As I suspect might be the case with many others, my sim desk is not dedicated to flying. It’s also where I work, play other PC games, and do other hobbies. On a desktop meant for multi-tasking, the MTQ’s form factor excels. The removable USB cable also makes wire management and storage much easier.
If you’re short on USB ports, the MTQ can also be daisy-chained with other Moza peripherals by using its onboard RJ45 port. While Moza cockpit will pick up the MTQ as a discrete device, Windows recognizes it as a copy of the primary device plugged in via USB. This created headaches for me in MSFS, since it treated the throttle as another AB6. Changes to the throttle mappings would, at times, cross-apply to the AB6 because the game tried to use the same profiles across both devices. This was not nearly as much of an issue in XP12 or DCS. Ultimately, I opted to use a powered USB hub that allowed the MTQ and AB6 to be recognized as discrete devices.
The MTQ is equipped with both M4 and M6 size mounting patterns on the bottom, similar to the AB6. This means it’s compatible with a large variety of aftermarket mounts that follow the Thrustmaster layout. While the throttle doesn’t ship with a mount in the box, the common pattern means it can be reused with other Moza gear down the line. I spent the bulk of my time with the MTQ in such a configuration, which saved even more precious real estate on the desktop.
When mounted, the only real fit consideration is the long forward reach of the TQF levers at the forward travel limit. Due to their extra height, the TQF levers rotate more than the other sets as they’re pushed forward. As a result, the extra height of the levers turns into additional forward length that amounts to about another 1/4th of the base. Put simply, a little extra room is needed to make sure the TQF levers don’t bump into the mount.
Across all of the lever sets, the available travel distance felt like it was more than enough for precision flying, especially on tricky approaches. I found myself building muscle memory with large Boeing jets easily, and torquey turboprops were never a handful to manage in climbouts.
The adjustable lever friction played a big part in achieving that precision, since heavier levers made it much more difficult to accidentally over-correct and melt a PT-6 on climbout. I noticed that the single-point friction adjustment affected all 4 levers on the quadrant, including the speedbrakes and flaps. While completely unnecessary, I found it to be a nice surprise. I do wish that the friction adjustment was tool-free, but it uses a common 2.5mm hex key which is easy to replace.
On a day-to-day basis, It became apparent that each of the MTQ’s lever sets brings a different flying experience that goes beyond a different shape of plastic.
I quickly found myself becoming picky about switching levers during an aircraft change. If it was an Airbus day, I needed to feel the clicks of FLX and CLB with the TQA. If it was a Boeing day, I needed to be able to press the TO/GA button beneath the handles on the TQB. If it was a DCS day, I needed the extra buttons, hats, and ministick on the TQF levers. Removing and replacing the levers multiple times per day did start to feel unwieldy, but the experience of each lever set made it worthwhile enough to do so.
Is the MTQ Worth It?
The MTQ shines for simmers who want to fly multiple jet types across multiple simulators without committing to a single type’s ecosystem.
It’s not the cheapest entry-level throttle at the USD 199 / GBP 199 / EUR 219 price point either, especially once you factor in the additional lever sets at USD 39 / GBP 39 / EUR 45 each. But cost alone doesn’t define the MTQ.
The MTQ’s real value lies in its modularity. Swapping lever sets changes the throttle’s personality without altering its compact footprint. You can start the day landing an Airbus from an overnight flight, hop in a CRJ at lunchtime, and shoot carrier landings in an F-18 at night. Having that kind of flexibility in a throttle that compact is something to write home about.
No single lever set is groundbreaking on its own, but as a system, the MTQ becomes far more interesting. Each set brings its own flavor while working within a unified design language. Taken together, all 3 sets offer a day-to-day experience greater than the sum of their parts.
The MTQ achieves what it sets out to do. It’s a compact, jet-focused throttle for simmers who love flying everything from Airbuses to F-18s. It’s a flexible, everyday-friendly device that offers immersion through variety rather than perfect replication.
If you’ve already invested in parts of a type-specific cockpit, be it Boeing, Airbus, or a high-end HOTAS, the MTQ isn’t for you, because it’s not designed to beat dedicated replicas at their own game.
For just about everyone else, the MTQ is a great bet for an entry-level throttle that makes flying all types of airplanes fun.
