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Phrase of an approaching flight sim controller unfold shortly across the WePC workplace. We’re no stranger to top-tier tech, starting from enormous gaming screens just like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 to haptic gaming headsets just like the Razer Kraken V3 Professional HyperSense. Regardless of this, we’ve by no means had a full-on flight sim management system in the home. Fortunately, this modified after we took supply of the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne Flight Common Flight Management System. This can be a notably thrilling time because it permits us to put in writing our first ever evaluate of a HOTAS, properly, technically, a HOTAS-adjacent product. So, let’s take a more in-depth look to see what the VelocityOne from Turtle seaside has to supply.
Turtle Seaside VelocityOne specs
Turtle Seaside VelocityOne Flight Common Flight Management System
Connections
USB, 3.5mm jack
Compatibility
Xbox Collection X/S, Home windows, Microsoft Flight sim, Video games with HOTAS help
Axes
12 Axes. Corridor impact sensor on foremost yoke axis. Optical encoder (trim wheel) and variable resistor (levers)
Buttons
2x 8-way POV switches, 2x 4-way HAT switches, 6x front-facing push buttons, 2x rear-facing push buttons, Xbox system buttons, 10x quadrant buttons
Execs
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Excellent integration with Microsoft Flight Simulator -
Tactile controls -
Vivid reactive lighting -
Flight administration display could be very helpful -
Nice ranges of immersion -
Enticing total design
Cons
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An excessive amount of plastic -
Some construct high quality points, for instance, the unfastened throttle levers -
At $350, may be out of funds for many individuals
Xbox Collection X/S, Home windows, Microsoft Flight sim, Video games with HOTAS help
12 Axes. Corridor impact sensor on foremost yoke axis. Optical encoder (trim wheel) and variable resistor (levers)
2x 8-way POV switches, 2x 4-way HAT switches, 6x front-facing push buttons, 2x rear-facing push buttons, Xbox system buttons, 10x quadrant buttons
Flight Administration Show – Full shade, 320 x 230 with adjustable backlight
RGB LEDs, adjustable by way of VelocityOne™ Flight Administration Show
12x RGB LEDs with 3x included swappable backlit standing panels
Built-in desk clamp, 3x threaded arduous mount holes
Given our inexperience with flight controllers, this evaluate shall be a studying expertise, and we will’t wait to get into it. So, let’s begin with some acquainted areas of focus, earlier than shifting into the extra aviation-specific facets of this evaluate. Let’s take a look on the unboxing and setup means of the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne.
What’s within the field & setup
The VelocityOne is available in a fairly enormous field for a gaming peripheral, measuring 53.5cm vast, 36cm in peak, and 25.5cm deep. Much like the Turtle Seaside Stealth 600 headset, the field is constructed with fairly sturdy cardboard and bordered with Xbox livery, alongside some featured photos of the VelocityOne, with an annotated picture exhibiting the controls on the reverse.
Opening the field we’re greeted by the steering yoke and throttle quadrant side-by-side, in their very own cardboard inserts wrapped in plastic. Given the quantity of cardboard and plastic wrapping, we’re absolutely assured within the security of the VelocityOne throughout transit, which is unsurprising because it goes for $350, so Turtle Seaside has put sufficient effort into the packaging to make sure that they received’t have to exchange one damaged throughout supply.
The setup was easy sufficient, simply open the flap positioned behind the yoke and seize the included hex key, Then unscrew the 2 bolts to increase the clamps till they will slide over the sting of your desk, then re-tighten them to safe the VelocityOne to the desktop. For the hardcore flight sim fanatics amongst you with a correct cockpit setup, there are additionally three threaded screw holes on the underside which are spaced as such to be appropriate with the usual mounting setups on most flight sim cockpits. These will end in a much more strong match than clamping the VelocityOne to a desk.
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It’s price noting right here that it received’t mount 100% securely you probably have a desk pad as tightening the clamps to some extent the place it doesn’t transfer round ends in the rear of the yoke housing lifting off of the desk. When you select to maneuver your desk pad, Turtle seaside has additionally included sticky anti-vibration pads for a very safe fitment on a normal desk.
After this merely join the helpfully color-coded USB Cables. The blue one goes from the throttle quadrant to the primary housing and the crimson one goes from the primary housing to a vacant USB port in your PC. After this, the VelocityOne shall be acknowledged mechanically by any appropriate sport.
Design
Provided that the VelocityOne is designed particularly (although not completely) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, Turtle seaside was restricted in how artistic they may very well be with the design and basic structure as they needed to adhere to pre-existing slight sim management conventions.
Regardless of this limitation, we actually like the way it seems to be. Entrance and middle we now have the 320 x 230px full-color display, with the inevitable Y, X, B, and A buttons in a vertical row to the suitable. Positioned behind the yoke there are 12 backlit standing indicators, saying issues like ‘FLAPS DOWN’ and ‘MASTER WARNING’, which we now have to imagine are pretty worrisome.
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To the left of the yoke housing is the place the throttle quadrant clips in, that is additionally absolutely backlit with 4 particular person throttle levers and three plungers. The levers include substitute caps of various colours and shapes, presumably so you’ll be able to color-code them to help in remembering which one does what.
Between the levers and plungers, there’s a financial institution of ten individually backlit absolutely programmable buttons to help you in your piloting duties, and to the left of those, there’s a trim wheel to assist preserve your flight completely stage. General the design is each ergonomic and utilitarian, with all the things intently mirroring the inside of an precise cockpit, no less than to our information. Regardless, throughout our testing interval, there was a fairly powerful studying curve to recover from, however the structure of the controls and vivid lighting actually helped.
Construct high quality
Giant components of the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne are constructed tremendous solidly, others would profit from slightly extra reinforcement and rather less plastic. The biggest trigger for concern is the housing for the yoke. It’s produced from very cheap-feeling plastic and produces a really hole sound when tapped, which makes suspect that it’s principally empty.
Shifting nearer to the primary yoke issues start to enhance, with the yoke linked by way of a firmly sprung chrome stanchion. We aren’t precisely positive how the resistance is dialed in, but it surely feels incredible with pulling up and down producing some agreeably agency resistance. Rolling your plane of selection on the longitudinal axis presents much less resistance, and we discover the connection between the 2 to be bang on.
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The yoke itself is constructed from the identical nasty plastic as the primary housing which is unlucky, as you’ll be able to twists the handles far too simply, which has the potential to trigger injury when steering aggressively to keep away from dive-bombing a mountain in Microsoft Flight Sim or performing evasive motion to keep away from a dastardly house pirate in Elite: Harmful. The grim plastic, nonetheless, brings us to a piece of the construct high quality that exceeds all expectations, the buttons.
Given what number of particular person inputs there are on the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne (we counted nearly 50!), nearly all of them really feel incredible. Areas for commendation are the yoke inputs as they’re all satisfyingly tactile with a definitive click on, which evokes confidence for each aviation enter throughout your long-haul flight or spacefaring quest. These enhances prolong to the programmable buttons between the throttle levers and plungers. Sadly, the throttle levers do really feel fairly unfastened and have a powerful rattle to them, and we’d favor slightly extra resistance to their motion to permit extra precision. These points are current with the plungers too, as they’re slightly too simple to yank for our liking. Moreover, the left and proper foremost triggers don’t have any damping
Gameplay efficiency
The reality of the matter is that there are not any hardcore flight sim folks at WePC, nonetheless, we nonetheless devoted a while to testing the VelocityOne in a couple of completely different flying-based video games, Primarily Microsoft Flight Simulator and Elite: Harmful. We concentrated totally on Flight Sim as that is the sport that this management system was designed for. It labored properly for Elite Harmful, however Elite is designed to be used with a full-on HOTAS (hands-on throttle-and-stick), so we knew it was going to be a less-than-perfect management system entering into.
By way of flight efficiency, the VelocityOne is a pleasure to make use of, as all of the controls are responsive and precisely calibrated out of the field as far as we will inform. Moreover, there’s a useful ‘coaching mode’ on the flight administration show that exhibits you a visible readout of the controls which makes it actually easy to determine whether or not or not it’s correctly calibrated.
Our first correct take a look at flight was considered one of appreciable problem as we aren’t skilled digital pilots but. Amusingly we discovered ourselves tilting our heads, and in some instances, whole torsos within the path we had been attempting to go. So, it undoubtedly provides to the immersion of gaming in a flight sim.
We really feel compelled to say that when you’re utilizing the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne with any sport apart from Microsoft Flight Simulator, you’ll should spend some time in coaching mode binding all of the enter and attempting to recollect the place precisely they’re. This resulted in a number of flying round like a headless rooster in Elite: Harmful which was equal components amusing and irritating. After some time, we managed to get together with the brand new controls and efficiently destroy a couple of errant barrels of house waste. So take that, intergalactic fly-tippers.
Turtle Seaside VelocityOne Microsoft Flight Sim efficiency
After all, the true take a look at of any yoke + throttle quadrant sim controller is the venerable Microsoft Flight Simulator, beloved of retirees and aspiring pilots all over the place. We’re glad to report that the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne works completely, immediately assigning itself to all the proper controls and permitting us to fly the way in which we wish. The way in which we wish being completely awfully, inflicting fairly a couple of ’emergency landings’ which had been pretty unsuccessful. We even paired the VelocityOne with a Samsung Odyssey G9, making for essentially the most immersive expertise on the market, outdoors of Digital actuality.
There have been a couple of calibration points right here and there that brought on surprising points. Our favourite was when it determined to roll the aircraft right into a dive, completely of its personal volition. We didn’t have sufficient time to calibrate the VelocityOne to perfection, however we acquired it shut sufficient to know that it’s an important flight management system and a worthy addition to any flight sim fanatic’s present setup.
Ultimate verdict
We had been principally impressed with the Turtle Seaside VelocityOne flight management system. It built-in immediately with Microsoft flight sim, and actually took the simulation immersion to a brand new stage, particularly when in comparison with utilizing a controller or gaming keyboard. The construct high quality is nice, with a couple of caveats and an excessive amount of low-cost plastic which can have an effect on longevity, however didn’t have an effect on the gameplay expertise in any respect.
Setup was very simple, nonetheless, as clamping it to a desk and plugging in two cables took a grand complete of two minutes, barely delaying your first flight which is at all times a bonus. As talked about earlier, customers of a desk pad may discover the fitment slightly unfastened, however nothing too worrying.
The in-game efficiency is the place the VelocityOne actually shines, completely emulating the primary controls of a commercial-grade plane, and completely integrating into flight sims with no further effort. There’s a steep studying curve for the first-time pilot, however give it a couple of hours, and also you’ll solely be crashing often, and also you’ll have incredible enjoyable the entire time.
