I’ve used quite a few bits of flight simulation hardware over the years, and I’m always a little sceptical when something promises to be both affordable and well-built. Usually, there’s a compromise somewhere. With the WingFlex DAP-500, however, I came away pretty impressed with what you get for the money.
At $159 USD, the DAP-500 is essentially a compact autopilot panel that gives you physical controls for many of the things you’d otherwise be clicking around for in the virtual cockpit. It works with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, as well as X-Plane, and supports a decent selection of aircraft across all three.
The DAP-500 comes with an aluminium desktop stand in the box and it is genuinely one of my favourite things about the whole package. It’s really sturdy, feels properly robust and takes just a couple of minutes to put together. Once the DAP-500 is mounted to it, the whole thing feels like a much more substantial bit of kit.
It sounds like a small thing, but it makes a big difference. I’ve used plenty of flight sim hardware that either slides around the desk or comes with a fairly cheap plastic mounting solution. This doesn’t. The stand keeps the DAP-500 planted when you’re pressing buttons or turning knobs, whilst also putting it at a nice angle to actually use. The fact WingFlex includes it rather than making it another optional extra is a big plus in my book.
That good first impression continues with the actual unit. The DAP-500 is fairly compact, so it doesn’t take over your desk, but it still feels like a quality product. The construction feels solid, everything fits together nicely and there’s nothing about it that immediately screams “budget hardware.”
I particularly like the buttons. They have a nice tactile, clicky feel to them, so you know when you’ve actually pressed something. When you’re flying, particularly if you’re trying to keep your eyes on the simulator rather than the hardware, that feedback is really useful.
The HDG/TRK and ALT SEL knobs are also rotary encoders with integrated push-button functionality, so you can both rotate and press them depending on what you’re trying to do. Again, nothing revolutionary here, but they feel good to use and do exactly what you expect.
There’s also a larger rotary control in the centre of the unit that is used for adjusting values such as vertical speed. This is probably my biggest complaint with the hardware. It feels a little too stiff and somewhat clunky compared with the other encoders on the DAP-500. It absolutely does the job, but considering how nice the other controls feel, this particular rotary control stands out as one area where I think WingFlex could add a little more refinement.
Note added 21st Aug 2026: This is an early engineering prototype, which WingFlex says means the stiffness felt is a result of this. Their mass production units are smoother, according to them.
Getting everything working was also pretty painless.
The WingFlex software is easy to install and, more importantly, easy to understand. Once that’s installed and running, the DAP-500 is basically plug-and-play with supported aircraft. I didn’t spend ages messing around with configuration files or trying to work out why something wasn’t talking to the simulator. I plugged it in, loaded up a supported aircraft and got flying.
There is a good selection of those supported aircraft too. In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, that currently includes the likes of the TBM 930, Bonanza G36, King Air 350, C172, Grand Caravan, CJ4, DA62, DA40 NG, Vision Jet and PC-12 NGX, amongst others. MSFS 2020 has its own healthy list, whilst X-Plane support includes aircraft such as the Baron 58, King Air C90B, Citation X, Cirrus SR22 and Vision Jet. There are more aircraft in development as well, so hopefully that list will continue to grow.
Once I actually started flying with it, I found myself using the DAP-500 more than I initially thought I would. There’s just something much nicer about reaching over and physically changing your selected altitude or heading rather than grabbing the mouse and trying to manipulate a knob in the virtual cockpit.
It’s particularly useful during those busier parts of a flight where you’re changing headings, altitudes, vertical speed and autopilot modes fairly regularly. After a while, you start remembering where everything is and can make changes without really looking at the panel. That’s exactly what I want from this type of hardware.
You may need to do a little bit of tweaking inside the simulator depending on your existing control setup. I had to adjust some in-game controls to get things behaving how I wanted. It wasn’t particularly difficult, and anyone with a few flight sim peripherals has probably been through this process plenty of times before, but it does mean the experience isn’t necessarily going to be completely plug-and-play for everyone.
At $159 USD, I think WingFlex has priced this pretty well. It’s compact, feels well made, the buttons and encoders are satisfying to use, the software doesn’t get in the way and there’s already support for a decent number of aircraft across both Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane.
And I keep coming back to that stand. It might seem strange to highlight an aluminium stand so much in a review of an autopilot panel, but it genuinely adds to the package. It’s sturdy, simple to assemble and makes the DAP-500 feel like a much more permanent part of your setup rather than another peripheral floating around the desk.
There are more sophisticated—and certainly more expensive—cockpit hardware solutions out there, but that’s not really what the DAP-500 is trying to compete with. For someone who wants some physical autopilot controls on their desk without spending a fortune or building a full cockpit, there’s a lot to like here.
