Thrustmaster has opened FSExpo Friday at the Saint Paul RiverCentre with a presentation that lifted the lid on an array of new products coming from the establish prehipheral builder.
Attending for their fifth year running, visitors to the convention centre will be able to see the new products on display at Thrustmaster’s booth, number 721.
Sky Yoke and Throttle Quadrant
Starting off, we have the Sky Yoke and Sky Throttle Quadrant. TCA Sky Yoke is thrustmaster’s first step into the general aviation segment, and according to the developer this yoke will be compatible with all platforms including both the XBOX and PlayStation consoles.
Unlike the TCA Boeing Yoke we’ve come to know over the years, the Sky Yoke uses a steel shaft for the main pitch axis. Although we haven’t been able to view the product in person at the time of writing, the construction of the main housing appears to be of more premium materials that we’ve come to see some of Thrustmaster’s combat product lines like the Warthog series, while the yoke itself and its handles look to be of a plastic construction.
The Sky Throttle quadrant is designed to operate alongside the Sky Yoke, however the yoke as a standalone product features a built-in throttle of its own as well as a trim wheel and yaw controls, although again from our limited viewing thus far we can’t see how the yaw controls have been implemented.
The yoke piece itself features 24 mappable “action buttons”, an 8-way hat switch, a mini-stick (akin to the thumb sticks on a gamepad, I would think you’d map this to your camera controls) and two analog triggers which are not visible in the image we’ve received but are guessing are placed behind the handles, one for each hand.
Moving onto the throttle quadrant – this unit contains a set of three engine control levers for manifold, blade pitch and mixture – labelled with their black, blue and red colours and tactile handle shapes. It looks like the levers are not hot-swappable like we see on products such as the Honeycomb Bravo, meaning that for twin engine prop aircraft you’re likely best off mapping both engines to the same lever for each of the three engine controls.
Thrustmaster says the yoke will be available in Q3 and the quadrant in Q4, and these will go to market with an RRP of £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 (yoke) and £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 (throttle).
T.Flight HOTAS 5 – MSFS Edition
Moving on, the previously announced T.Flight HOTAS 5 Microsoft Flight Simulator edition now has a confirmed release date – today, now!
Although the overall design and visual appearance of the unit is largely unchanged from the existing HOTAS X and HOTAS 4 product offerings (besides the white paint job), the USP of the HOTAS 5 is a new ability to adjust the resistance of the joystick, as well as the throttle lever. The controller is being upgraded from 10-bit to 16-bit precision, allowing for more delicate, calibrated inputs.
HOTAS 5 is confimed to be a plug-and-play system which will be day one compatible and instantly recognised by all platforms including the consoles.
The product, alongwith Thrustmaster’s existing HOTAS products, are well suited to newcommers in the flight simulation genre looking to take the immersion up a notch from gamepad controls, but unsure of the commitment to a full home cockpit setup. HOTAS 5 is going to market with an RRP of £89.99 / $109.99 / €99.99.
Airbus Add-on Grip
Moving on, Thrustmaster are announcing a new Airbus grip. This is compatible with most of their existing bases including the AVA, Sol-R, HOTAS Warthog MK2 and HOTAS Warthog (using the Warthog converter) which are all sold seperately from the stick itself. The stick is officially licensed and represents a 1:1 scale left handed (captain’s side) Airbus flight stick.
Crucially, what makes this different from the existing TCA stick besides the construction and modular nature, is the addition of an extra button to the left of the stick and a trigger guard over the AP disconnect button. This makes the stick more akin to what we see on the flight deck of the A400M than any of Airbus’ civilian aircraft.
The new stick is coming in July and goes to market at an RRP of £89.99 / $129.99 / €99.99.
HOTAS Warthog MK2
The eagle-eyed among our readership might have seen “Warthog MK2” above and been confused, since until today no such product existed. Alas, next in Thrustmaster’s product reveal is an updated version of the highly popular Warthog HOTAS.
For the uninitiated, Thrustmaster’s Warthog is a 1:1 scale reproduction of the viper flight stick and dual throttle system found on the real-world A-10C Warthog CAS aircraft. Thrustmaster’s new version of the controls features updated electronics for compatability with all generations of Thrustmaster grips, as well as next-gen mechanisms which the developer says will improve the long-term durability of the unit.
Warthog MK2 will be availble in September and the RRP is £449.99 / $599.99 / €549.99.
OMNI Extension
Finally Thrustmaster detailed a simple connector arm for their modular joysticks which they are terming “OMNI”. This is more intended for the space simulator crowd according to Thrustmaster, but essentially one end screws into your joystick base while the other screws into the stick itself, enabling the mounting of any modular sidestick at an approximately 50/55 degree angle.
OMNI is also coming in September at an RRP of £34.99 / $44.99 / €39.99.
That wrapped up Thrustmaster’s presentation at FSExpo Friday. Keep your eyes peeled on our feed for more of the latest as it is presented on the FSExpo stage.
