Flight Sim Realism
Saitek has developed a series of panels to increase flight simulation realism. While added realism is definately achieved, basically they do nothing more than bring some of a plane's controls and gauges outside of the virtual cockpit onto your desk, freeing your screen. This saves a lot of view-changing and mousing around. However, since they do not bring all of those controls and gauges onto your desk, not even if you got several of all of those panels, view-changing is still essential. To avoid view-changing,something like Track-IR would be more useful. These panels are made to be screwed on the yoke which is meant to be screwed to your desk, but if you do not have a yoke, pressing the switches on the panel will just move the panel backwards. The panels are rather smoothly made so they slide easily. Saitek supplies velcro patches to stick on the panel and your desk so they won't move, but I would not want to stick those velcro patches directly on my desk. Sticking them onto another panel won't have much effect - screws are supplied for that purpose anyway. The supplied USB cable is kind of tough, not easily bendable. Some USB devices are lighter than the cable's toughness and as such will not stay where you put them, and this is true for the Radio Panel. But again, these devices were meant to screw on the yoke. USB devices may need more power than you think so it is advised to use a powered USB hub or directly into the computer. Esp. if you have more than one panel. The Switch Panel looks like how Saitek designed it, regardless of the chosen plane. I have not noticed it to have any impact on a computer's performance at all. I think these Saitek panels are really cool and for me, being an aviation enthousiast, worth the cost. But if you're just an occasional flightsimmer, they are probably not. Vince G. - Shulin City, AL » Write a Review