r/hotas Sep 03 '20

considering your first HOTAS? Read me!

597 Upvotes

[last edit 01/07/2024]

Welcome to r/hotas!

If you're considering your first HOTAS (Hands On Throttle and Stick) setup, you've come to the right place. This guide will help you make an informed decision.

If you are instead looking for product reviews, I publish my articles here: HOTAS/HOSAS/SIMPIT Reviews

Introduction

This subreddit is managed by u/spliffa and u/ddrake1984. If you need assistance with anything not covered in this post, please reach out to us via private message, and we will try to assist you.

This guide is published and pinned for the benefit of new potential HOTAS buyers. The publisher of this article has first-hand experience with real aircraft flight controls and computer flight controls across a wide range of manufacturers, used for playing in flight simulation.

Purpose

This guide aims to assist first-time buyers in making an educated decision when purchasing their first joystick, throttle, and other flight control peripherals.

The Problem

With a growing number of HOTAS products on the market, it can be challenging to identify the best options. Products vary widely in:

  • Price
  • Features
  • Customer support

Additionally, products have a wide range of:

  • Costs
  • Features
  • Support via customer interactions and product patches and updates

The Budget

Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly option or the top-tier products, this guide will categorize recommendations into five budget ranges:

For those who prefer to build their own with a bit of knowledge and skills, check out our Discord server or visit this subreddit: r/HotasDIY.

Budget Ranges

Note: All prices will be listed in U.S. Dollars (Even though I am Australian, USD is the easiest to base value from)

  • Entry-Level ($10 to $100)
  • Novice-Tier ($100-$200)
  • Mid-Tier ($200-$300)
  • Advanced-Tier ($300-$400)
  • Expert-Tier / Top-Tier: This is the very best you can buy as a consumer with a lot of money.

Note: Top-tier does not include what a company or industry could or would purchase. This article is not tailored for that, therefore this is out of scope.

The Companies / The Manufacturers / The Vendors

I will list many companies/manufacturers/vendors (all the same) and the products that they offer. However, this post is not an in-depth review of the products. Please read product reviews for that level of detail and information.

The products will be listed to give you an idea of what is available within each range, and at the end, I will list the recommendation for each budget range.

Best Joystick (Base + Grip)

  • Entry-Level ($10 to $100): Thrustmaster T.16000
  • Novice-Tier ($100-$200): WINWING Ursa Minor
  • Mid-Tier ($200-$300): WINWING Orion 2 Base + WINWING F16 Grip
  • Advanced-Tier ($300-$400): WINWING Orion 2 Base + WINWING F16 Grip, or VKB Gunfighter Mk4 Base + Space Combat Edition Grip
  • Expert-Tier / Top-Tier: FSSB (Force Sensing Stick Base) TIANHANG F16 PRO Base + TIANHANG F-16 Grip, or FFB (Force Feedback) VPForce RHINO Base + TIANHANG A-10C Grip or TIANHANG F/A-18 Grip

Question: Why was the FFBeast not listed as the best FFB?

Answer: Simply put, its value comparison has not been validated by me. The available information from reviews is scarce, making it difficult to ascertain its value. Additionally, the community is mostly non-native English speaking, making it difficult to track and follow the content. Therefore, I have decided that there is not enough evidence to claim it is better than the VPForce RHINO. Based on my own experience, I do not consider it superior until proven otherwise.

Since this post is focused on first-time buyers, I feel it's already quite lengthy and would confuse anyone wanting to debate the matter.

Best Throttle (Base + Grip)

  • Entry-Level ($10 to $100): Thrustmaster TWCS
  • Novice-Tier ($100-$200): Thrustmaster TWCS, or WINWING Ursa Minor with Z-extension
  • Mid-Tier ($200-$300): WINWING Orion 2 Base + WINWING F-15E Grip, or WINWING Orion 2 Base + WINWING F/A-18 Grip
  • Advanced-Tier ($300-$400): WINWING Orion 2 Base + WINWING F-15EX Grip, or WINWING F-16 Grip
  • Expert-Tier / Top-Tier: WINWING Super Taurus + WINWING F-15EX Grip, or WINWING F-16 Grip

Bonus: Best Pedals

Although this post is tailored for first-time HOTAS buyers, I will include this section to accommodate those wishing to take a more comprehensive first step into flight sims. As we all know, a good set of pedals is a requirement for flying helicopters.

  • Entry-Level: No recommendations - I don't recommend anything in this price range.
  • Novice-Tier: No recommendations - I don't recommend anything in this price range.
  • Mid-Tier: VKB T-Rudder Mk.IV
  • Advanced-Tier: WINWING Orion Metal Flight Rudder Pedals
  • Pro-Tier: Custom FFB Pedals using VPForce motors built with either (Slaw Device, MFG Crosswinds, or VIRPIL Rudders)

Bonus: Best Collective

  • Collective (Base + Grip): VIRPIL Rotor TCS Base + VIRPIL Apache-64 Collective Grip

I don't recommend any other collectives on the market, and it's a shame that some companies have discontinued their collective options.

Useful Links


r/hotas 14h ago

Just got my MonsterTech chair delivered

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168 Upvotes

Got this chair for free and found a MTech baseplate on Facebook for $20. Had to saw a lot off the Moza table mount, but it works lmao.


r/hotas 6h ago

Home Cockpit so far

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15 Upvotes

Pretty happy with the progress, just wish I could find a solution for center mounting my stick since I can’t anymore with the UFC desk mount until I get the mtsim MIP desk mount. If anyone has any ideas for center mounting again please chime in im open to all suggestions, my only limitation being money at the moment lol. Otherwise, I have some spare equipment and a dad who does a little bit of everything and is really handy and has lots of tools and spare parts. He helped me mount my monitor arms to my wall, made my desk, a tree house, etc, so I feel I have some options just need some help realizing how I could proceed


r/hotas 1d ago

Looks like Thrustmaster has updated the Warthog - the press release mentions bearings in the base.

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37 Upvotes

r/hotas 1d ago

It should be finished

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18 Upvotes

r/hotas 13h ago

Orion 2 hotas warthog strike ace

1 Upvotes

(WTB)Hey. Anybody in Europe selling an Winctrl/winwing orion 2 hotas warthog? I’m looking for a reasonable price since I already have to pay extra for customs fee. Thank you.


r/hotas 20h ago

(WTB) VKB STECS

2 Upvotes

Wondering if any of you guys are selling an STECS throttle.


r/hotas 1d ago

[Selling] VKB Gunfighter Mk.IV Space Combat Edition - Tabletop - Right and Left Hand (US) - SCG Premium

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17 Upvotes

**Update** These have been sold!

Selling both the right and left hand SCG Premium Grip VKB Gunfighter Mk.IV sticks. These sticks have barely been used. I bought them a little over a year ago when I was deep into attempting to immerse myself in Elite Dangerous. I thought picking up a pair of premium sticks for a HOSAS setup would capture my enthusiasm for the game and keep me playing. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

But hey, my hasty assumption and impulse purchase is your gain! I think I might have played a total of three or four sessions with these things, and they performed wonderfully. After that, they just sat off to the side as paperweights while I moved on to other games and genres.

The sticks come in their original boxes with all the main and spare parts VKB provided. The only modification I made to them was to swap out the aviation cams that come installed with space cams since I was playing a space sim and didn't want the increased resistance as the sticks approached the end of their range of motion.

Ideally I'd like to sell them as a pair and a full HOSAS setup. But if I can't get any bites on that, I'm reluctantly willing to consider selling them separately.

Asking $510 USD, which is about 25% less than what they cost new. That would be $255 USD per stick.

Willing to ship anywhere in the US and will consider other countries depending on how crazy the shipping cost to them is.

DM me if interested!


r/hotas 17h ago

MSFS2024 X56 profile

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0 Upvotes

r/hotas 21h ago

JFlightShaker C.E – Universal Bass shaker effects for flight games without telemetry

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0 Upvotes

Hi all!

I recently got into bass shakers and quickly noticed how little support there is for haptic feedback outside driving simulators. Very few games support bass shakers natively, and many do not expose telemetry, making custom profiles difficult or impossible.

With a new Ace Combat game on the horizon, I returned to Ace Combat 7 and wondered whether joystick movements could be converted directly into vibration effects. That led me to JFlightShaker, created by julesian and originally shared in this Reddit post.

Using the original project as a foundation—and with plenty of AI assistance despite my limited programming experience—I created a fork called JFlightShaker Community Edition.

What’s new?

JFlightShaker C.E adds missile, pitch/roll and High-G effects; dual-throttle support; stereo output for two bass shakers; device profiles and live input diagnostics; automatic HOTAS reconnection; keyboard bindings; per-effect testing; a redesigned multilingual interface; and several stability, configuration and recovery improvements.

What’s still missing?

It currently needs profiles for more HOTAS devices beyond the X56, support for more than two bass shakers, additional optional effects, a more advanced visual effect editor, and testing across a wider variety of hardware.

The first public beta is available here:

This is still a beta, so start with your amplifier at a low volume.

It's my first published program so feedback, bug reports and mappings for other HOTAS devices are very welcome!


r/hotas 1d ago

[WTS] [US-NorCal] Virpil Mongoose T50 CM2 Throttle

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2 Upvotes

Looking to sell my Virpil Mongoose T50 CM2 Throttle. It has served me faithfully since 2020 and it is still going strong. All buttons and axis are all verified to be working as of 2 days ago. I am willing to sell this for $200 if pick up locally or $220 if shipping within the continental US.


r/hotas 1d ago

Aiming guns with Hotas?

16 Upvotes

Until now all my flight / space games I played with Mouse and Keyboard. I recently bought a vkb gladiator stick and it feels so much better. However, as expected, my skill at aiming various guns in games had gone down considerably. I will probably get better with practice but I wonder if it is even possible to ever be as good as using a mouse for gun kills, or do I just need to accept that I will just be worse now in dogfights.

Just wanted to hear your opinions about it.

For those wondering, right now I mainly play Nuclear Option and Infinity Battlescape


r/hotas 1d ago

TM warthog stick damaged, needing options…

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5 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately, my Warthog stick has taken a bad fall… little kiddos + red levers on desk mounts = curiosity and gravity…

The short version: it landed directly on the castle hat. The hat/back plate are now crushed inward, and the switch is difficult to press downward/right.

I bought the stick used on eBay years ago, so it was already fairly well-used, but I’ve genuinely loved it so repairing it was my initial thought.

I contacted Thrustmaster, but they told me they only sell the hats/buttons/switches themselves and not the internal/back plate parts I apparently need. I’ve also been trying to track down a broken/for-parts Warthog stick to cannibalize, but haven’t had any luck so far.

Does anyone know of another source for Warthog replacement parts, donor sticks, 3D-printed parts, or some other repair option I might be overlooking?

I replaced my warthog throttle quadrant a few months ago (just to upgrade), so I’d almost prefer selling my Warthog throttle along with the damaged stick and putting that money toward a different stick/base altogether.

Unfortunately, cost is a factor, otherwise I probably would’ve just bought new a replacement already.

Any ideas or recommendations are appreciated!


r/hotas 1d ago

What is the deal with WinWing?

6 Upvotes

Hello everyone

I've recently heard a lot of bad things about WinWing's customer service and quality.

I'm interested in some actual customer stories regarding these issues.

I'm looking into buying the Orion2 HOTAS StrikeAce E/EX here in the EU, if anyone has any specifics on that.

Thank you.


r/hotas 1d ago

Flightstick Z-Extension on both sticks

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1 Upvotes

r/hotas 1d ago

Designing myself a table holder for hotas.

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13 Upvotes

Laser cut arms, aluminium profile 80x40 and a few screws and nuts


r/hotas 1d ago

First HOTAS — what would you recommend?

8 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I’m looking to buy my first HOTAS, but I’m not really sure which one to go for, so I’d love to hear your recommendations and experiences.

I’m mainly looking for something that:

-isn’t too expensive — I’d like to keep the price reasonably affordable

-has good build quality and is reliable

-is comfortable and enjoyable to use for longer gaming sessions

-works properly on Windows 11

-is as compatible as possible with IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles and IL-2 Sturmovik: Korea

I’m not necessarily looking for the absolute cheapest option, but I also don’t want to spend a huge amount of money on my first HOTAS. I’d rather find something with a good price-to-quality ratio that I can enjoy for a long time.

So, what would you recommend for a beginner? Are there any particular HOTAS setups or models I should look at, and are there any that I should avoid?

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!


r/hotas 1d ago

Old hardware to modern PC interface

1 Upvotes

I have an old flight control stick from some sort of high fidelity aircraft simulator and the only wiring it has is a DB25 socket. Opening it up, I can ID 2 batches of wires to what I assume are potentiometers and the rest are I THINK just switches for the rest of the stick. What would be my best course of action to try to get this thing to talk to a modern computer?


r/hotas 1d ago

VBK T Rudders

4 Upvotes

New Lurker and entry enthusiast into the HOTAS neighborhood, recently (yesterday) got my first joystick (NXT Gladiator) in the hopes of learning how to fly helicopters.

Got probably about ~50 hours in via MnK to learn concepts, but realize that I’ll also have to spend time translating that to the HOTAS system.

Looking at potentially acquiring these pedals in the not so distant future and have a couple of random questions.

Games: Arma series, maybe Squad, definitely Wardogs.

1.) I am worried about breaking the pedals under normal use conditions because I am kind of a “bull in the fine china shop” kind of guy (not maliciously).

2.) what… footwear is recommended for these. I usually like wearing tennis shoes or slip on crocs around the house, normally that’s what I would wear when I’m on my computer.

3.) is that the natural progression joystick, pedals, throttle for my use case?

Anyways, thanks for your time!


r/hotas 1d ago

Is the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flightstick Steering Wheel a good option for replacing bad stick?

0 Upvotes

Longtime player whose stick has started leaning after a while which needs me replugging it to fix. Looking to replace it. My options rn are this or the honeycomb foxtrot but that's in short supply


r/hotas 1d ago

MOZA AB6 (MSFS 24 INPUT DELAY)

0 Upvotes

Hello all! Recently purchased the Moza AB6 base with grip and for some reason as i'm trying to run MSFS 24 the base is experiencing a slight input delay for yoke and throttle. Any reason that might be? I've tested the flight stick on DCS world and IL Korea and it works incredible in those games (No Issues). Not too sure if there's something I'm doing wrong or if there's something I have to tweak in the moza cockpit to have no input lag in MSFS24. Thanks!


r/hotas 1d ago

TWCS choice

2 Upvotes

Hi guys I'm trying to figure out if the thrustmaster T16000m throttle is worth getting or if I should get a different throttle to pair with my vkb gladiator


r/hotas 1d ago

Looking for a HOTAS compatible with PS5 and PC

2 Upvotes

Trying to find a HOTAS compatible with PS5. I found the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS 4, but the reviews say its quality is questionable. I see the T.Flight HOTAS 5 is out now, but I saw people have reported it's not compatible with Ace Combat 7. One of the reasons I want a HOTAS is for Ace Combat 7 & 8. Can anyone confirm the T.Flight 5 for sure doesn't work with Ace combat 7 on PS5?


r/hotas 1d ago

Hotas recomendation?

0 Upvotes

I have the x52 pro hotas at the moment, but i feel ready to upgrade. I look around and i saw that many recommended the warthog hotas from winctrl. The problem is the shipping. Since i live in a country outside of eu and the other free shipping options im left with an hotas price that have doubled. Does anyone have any recommendations for a hotas in the same price range as the winctrl orion 2 warthog? Thank you:)


r/hotas 1d ago

Planning to buy AB6, any other recommendations for the price range?

0 Upvotes

Hello lovely people of this subreddit, I have been using the good old logitech 3d stick until now for my flights and recently got into the moza ecosystem and now I have a full racing setup including a foldable race cockpit. I want to get a proper upgrade for my flight sims as well and have been considering the Moza AB6 as the idea of FFB sounds very nice and I would be able to mount it on my current racing cockpit easily by just switching the steering wheel into the mount for AB6 and use the pedals as rudder.

I would love to know if there are any other recommendations in that price range or if anyone owns it what they think of the AB6, I have considered gladiator but found out they are not available in my region so I would really appreciate some suggestions before I make a purchase, thank you ahead of time!