Reddit reviews Speedlink Black Widow USB Flightstick Joystick With Throttle Control Black

I'd personally recommend the Speedlink Black Widow, I've used one for years (I'm on my second one after I mistreated it for a while, didn't store it properly and it fucked up the X axis).

Very reasonably priced, has a decent throttle, good stick and integrated rudder on the throttle.

>Unless you're a student and you're not going to get any more money until the semester starts or something

I am a student yeah and I'm not getting money until the semester starts again!

One thing I wasnt sure about is how much switch flicking and button pressing is required after takeoff and in combat etc, because I have a pretty cheap stick that doesn't have a lot of options for keybinds (No trackIR either), is there much I would need to keybind or are most of the switches for startup etc?

Nice review, I just did similar sort of research for myself when upgrading from a SpeedLink Black-widow (which you may want to mention on your list) to an X52 Pro. What struck me is how few HOTAS options there are on the market, and to an extent flight sticks in general. The last time I was aware of the pleasure-stick market was 5 years ago, when I bought my SpeedLink. I expected to find a ton of options when searching for an upgrade, but apart from a few new ones you still are basically limited to the same small selection that was available 5 years ago. And no good force-feedback sticks! I'd love to get my hands on a modern day Sidewinder.

Also, I've been using my SpeedLink with Arma 2 and 3 for the last few years, and it does work surprisingly well. The flight models are slightly arcadey, but using a hotas with it will still give you an edge over a basic flight-stick. It seems a lot of people still prefer using keyboard and mouse for Arma flight though, which personally baffles me but it probably attests to the weak flight physics. I'd like to see them run Prepar3d with a K&M.

I already own a cheap HOTAS(Black Widow) and Elite Dangerous, so hopefully should be good to go for this without having to spend any money

I have a black widow, might be better value in the EU, either way its a great stick and makes elite feel great http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0001ZN4WU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1415232051&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

Hi,

Okay, as you're only starting out with flight sims, I would recommend using your mouse and keyboard to control your plane at first to see how much you enjoy it. To get started I'd recommend using the FSX tutorials to help you learn the basics - these are found under the missions tab when you first launch the simulator. These should teach you the bare essentials of flying a plane and the basic keyboard controls - if you need some extra help with controls, here's a PDF to help.

After completing these tutorials you should have a feel for whether or not you enjoy flight simming enough to upgrade your equipment, because although the mouse and keyboard are OK to control with, they're fairly inconvenient in the long run. If you decide to invest in some better equipment I've got recommendation I'd like to make. Using things like this is going to make playing flight sim a lot more interesting and fun.

Speedlink Black Widow Flightstick - This product is great for starting out. It's pretty cheap and has everything you'll need to make flight simming more fun. It has a convenient throttle control, a good few buttons and will definitely last you a long time.

Now if you've got some extra money, rudder pedals are another great way to make simming easier, but these tend to come in at quite high prices.

As for what you shouldn't do, there really isn't much to say here. The great thing about flight sim is that you can fly a plane in any way you want without consequence. Do whatever you want to do, if you want to go for realism and professionalism then that's fine, and if you want to go for crashing and messing about then that's fine too; but I'm going to assume like most other simmers you'll prefer the first choice.

To learn and practice new techniques and upgrade your realism, Youtube is a great way to to so. There a hundreds of channels out there with tutorials and training videos to help you out, I'll put a few of these below as this is how I learned.

FSXGenius Flight School - These videos are very informative and there's plenty of content to keep you learning for a while.
Belynz - Not really a tutorial series, but watching this guy is genuinely entertaining and you will most likely learn something along the way.
FlyFSX - Not really a video but another great learning technique.

Based on a recommendation I bought a Speedlink Black Widow Flightstick - perfectly functional for casual use and out-of-the-box compatible with Arma 3.

I sit on my couch to play. I have a monitor on a stand in front of me on the floor which suits me fine. I use a Speedlink black widow http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speedlink-SL-6640-SBK-Black-Widow-Flightstick/dp/B0001ZN4WU
The black widow is very cheap but I have had it for a few years now and have found it to be a great budget HOTAS.

I also have my keyboard on the arm of the sofa to my left and in between this I use my old ASUS TF101 tablet running Roccat power grid as my control panel. Using this I can adjust all my power settings and lower landing gear/cargo scoop etc.

The keyboard is only ever used for chat or tabbing out to windows.

I will try and post a pic later but I'm at work right now and cant.

Edit: pic http://imgur.com/DhpT6yt

What about this one?

The F15 is DLC but the free version has a Su-25T and non-armed Mustang. The thing is you miss out with a controller, joysticks are already perfect for a VR input, I use this really cheap one and it does the job []-)