Imagine taxiing to the runway with a fully loaded Boeing 737 and when given the go ahead by air traffic control begin rolling down the runway where you reach V1 and need to raise the nose of your plane to take off. What do you use to pull back on, a keyboard or a mouse or is there something better?
The flight simulator stick is an input device that allows much more progressive airplane game control than simply using the keys on a keyboard. Using a mouse and keyboard may not give as rewarding an experience and in some instances make a flight simulator almost impossible to use and not fun.
The stick enables you to control the pitch and yaw of your simulated aircraft. Pushing it forward your plane will dive, pulling back and your plane will climb. Moving to the left or right will allow the plane to roll to the left or right. It is all about deft balancing and small increments to enable small precise and fluid movements that can make all the difference in a dogfight when bullets are flying past your cockpit or you have a guided missile on your tail.
Being able to make those more subtle moves may be the difference between getting shot down and being able to evade your enemies and stay alive. Many flight sticks are modelled on those in real aircraft such as the General Dynamics F16 Fighting Falcon or Lockeed F22 Raptor. The modern flight stick has its roots in the humble joystick found on retro consoles such as the Atari 2600 from 1977. A joystick was seen as the easiest way to be able to play games without a large and more costly keyboard. It lead to realistic adaptations of flight controls for the increasing number of flight simulators available.
Many flight sticks come with a hat switch also know as a POV (point of view) to allow you to take a full look around in your virtual world. This is usually found conveniently placed on top of the joystick for ease of use. Other buttons you may find are a trigger to launch missiles or bullets. Secondary buttons allow fine-tuning of the stick. Extra buttons can also assign secondary weapons to easily raise and lower your planes undercarriage.
Quite a few simulators allow you to completely change the button assignment and have the POV as four separate switches to be able to switch between weapons, cycling through various functions. Some have a basic throttle integrated in the form of a wheel or slider switch to allow precise control of your airspeed.
A good flight stick will aid your situational awareness and help in making you feel part of the action be it a modern fighter jet, large airliner or a simple World War 1 bi-plane. Some even have vibration feedback allowing you to feel what the aircraft is doing. In tight turns, you will need to apply more pressure or if you are being peppered with bullets, the flight stick will vibrate.
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