Customer Reviews

Saitek PRO Flight Switch Panel (PZ55)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a interesting little piece of plastic. And I recommend and enjoy it with some unfortunate reservations. Be aware of a few little things that make you go, "Huh, what were they thinking?"

It ships with a hex tool to unscrew the screws on the companion pro flight throttle for mounting. Problem is, it's the wrong size....way too small...so you will need a #3 hex tool handy if you want to mount to the companion yoke. Also, the instructions suggest using the 2 inner screw mount points. I suggest you use 2 mount points wider apart, other wise the panel will sway from side to side.

The mounting bracket is quite flimsy. So much so that when you flip switches the panel console moves, front to back. Disappointingly poor engineering design especially when you see they have plans to hang more stuff off this in time to come.

The mag switch is mixed up (L/R should be R/L)

You can't assign or change functions to switches on this unit as you can with the yoke or throttle.

The Saitek website doesn't tell you what driver version is the latest much less what issues it addresses.

OK, that's the annoying stupid stuff.

The good stuff:


There is a new driver available on the Saitek web site!


The inoperative cowl flap switch has been fixed with driver rev 6.5.8.4 (But it's either open or closed, nothing incremental.)

The inoperative deice switch has been fixed with driver rev 6.5.8.4 (Still, if it's not implemented in FSX, why designate a switch for it?)

The incorrect landing gear light sequence has been fixed with driver rev 6.5.8.4 (Green is down, Red is in transit, Amber is gone)


Everything else is really nice and I do enjoy not having to look for all these switches on keyboards or screens. Simply plug it into the back of the companion yoke and run a quick program which installs as an FSX (simconnect?) plugin and thats it.

My test flights were on a system running Vista 64 with an FSX default C172, a default Mooney Bravo and everything worked except the cowl flaps and as noted above. Also worked with an add on Eaglesoft Cirrus SR22. So, pretty successful for out of the box. And it looks cool.

But for silly oversights, Saitek could have had a brilliant unit here instead of just a good one. They need to pay attention to detail. Makes you wonder who is in charge of things there...and why?

So, it's 4 out of 5 now with the new driver.

I've now had a good amount of time to put the Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel. I use it in conjunction with my CH Products yoke, pedals and throttle quadrant Clearly, Saitek saw this as an addon for its yoke, sine you can screw this item into the to off the yoke. While that may save desk space, I don't recall having ever seen an aircraft with these controls in that position.

I mounted mine on my desktop to the right of my yoke and to the left of my throttle quadrant. That seems to be a convenient location for ease of use. I used the supplied Velcro strips. I agree with the other reviewer that this is not the best way to mount the product on the desk as it does, indeed allow the unit to wobble. The wobble can be minimized by placing your fingers on the top of the unit and working the panel's switches with your thumb. There are numerous other ways the average person could mount this product more securely. A little ingenuity is all it takes.

For the default aircraft or the less complex addon aircraft, the switches on this panel will take you from cold and dark to ready to taxi. For the more complex aircraft from PMDG or Level D, it will still require using some additional mouse clicks to do the job.

Starting anywhere from one to four engines is simple with this unit...perhaps overly simple, but remember, this product is under a hundred bucks.

The master "bat", "alt" and master avionics switches are only useful if you like to start up in a cold and dark cockpit. The cowl flaps switch is useful only for propeller driven aircraft. The lighting switches are good for almost any aircraft, as are the pitot heat, de-ice switches and landing gear lever.

All in all, I am quite satisfied with this product. In addition to adding to the realism of the simulation,it has allowed me to re program several switches on my yoke and throttle quadrant for other purposes.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars and not five, is that it would have been so simple for Saitek to provide removable clamps for desktop mounting.

This is a very nice addition to my simulator.
My computer has Windows Vista 64 bit. I use yoke, pedals and Quadrant from CH Products. I have FS "X".
I plugged it in, installed the software from the CD. All switches worked except the "cowl open/close". I followed the advice from another reviewer and downloaded the driver from Seitek (site very easy to navigate), intalled it and everything works great. It is a great addition to my simulator and as someone else said it frees quadrant switches for other things.
I have a wodden desk and I used bolts and nuts to secure it to the desk (the holes are already provided from Seitek), all it takes is $2 of hardware from HomeDepot.
Note: Amazon will not give you free shipping on this item.
"Volo Sim Ergo Sum"

I won't re-hash all of the previous comments but merely add my experiences that I haven't seen posted yet.

First, the good points (from a real-world pilot):

Unit functions as described. I used the included screws to mount it solidly on top of my Saitek radio panel.

I am building a center console for my simpit and the option to de-mount the unit from it's plastic enclosure is a big plus. This will allow me to mount it in the center console with no problems.

The landing gear lights sequence CORRECTLY when the gear is coming down. For instance, if the right main gear goes down and locks before the others, then that gear light will correctly turn green while the others are still in-transit. Very nice touch since Saitek could have simply went with "all up" or "all down". I had a left main gear failure on an EMB-120 and this unit correctly showed that gear to be stuck in-transit so it really added to the experience.

Although there is only one "start" position on the knob to the far left, I can still start my jet (B757) correctly by sequencing the air valves, using the START knob and starting that engine, return the knob to run once started, then do the same with the other engine. Not quite as realistic as the Real Thing but this should work great in a single-engine aircraft (for which it was intended).

As far as general-aviation aircraft go (such as the C-172), you can properly perform a runup by starting the engine, setting the parking brake, running up to 1800 RPM and sequence the left and right magnetos. I checked the accuracy of the unit by "failing" the left magneto in the C-172 and during the engine runup, selecting the Left mag. The engine (correctly) wanted to die at that point so the knob functions as in the real aircraft.

Now the bad (or not so good):

The leftmost knob is not spring-loaded to return from the start position to RUN when released (like in a real aircraft). Not a big deal but, depending on the fidelity of your sim, could overheat a starter if left in the Run position by accident.

The on/off rocker switches are very loud. Flip one and you are rewarded with a resounding CLACK! It will definitely let you know that you activated that switch but might not be good for the late-night flier with sleeping kin close by. I put a piece of 1" thick foam in the ample space in the back of the unit and it helps quite it somewhat. The switches DO take some effort to flip which will make the unit wobble unless securely mounted.

The plastic on the provided enclosure is quite a bit thinner than the panel itself. Not a big deal but makes it feel "cheap" when compared to the panel of the unit, which is a heavy plastic (good).

Since I fly at night a lot, the switch positions can be very hard to see unless you have a light nearby. I wish there were LED indicators (off/green) above the switches themselves which would certainly help in seeing them. In addition, backlighting the lettering would be a definite plus since it would then be easy to make out the switch functions. To my knowledge, none of the Saitek panels are backlit.

Probably the biggest downside (in my opinion) is the proprietary nature of the unit and the inability to reassign/relabel switch functions to something other than what they are assigned at the factory. For instance, I never use the Cowl Flaps switch and it would be nice to use it for something else. It would have been easy for Saitek to make this unit be seen as a standard Windows HID device with all the re-assignment (and compatibility) benefits that that would offer but alas, it was not to be. You cannot use the unit with anything other than Flight Simulator unless someone offers a software go-between to read it's state and re-assign it to something else (Falcon 4.0 for instance).

In conclusion:

This unit will not "add" any functionality beyond what you can do with simple keystrokes but WILL immerse you deeper into the flying experience since you'll have switch clicks and lights when your on that scary, low-visibility night approach. As a plus, if you fly many aircraft, a quick glance will tell you whether the gear is down or not as opposed to hunting for the gear indication on an unfamiliar aircraft.

Shutting down the anti-ice, lights, etc at the end of a flight is satisfying since your rapidly clicking everything to the OFF position and shutting the engines down. If on a group flight, this unit will give you finer (and quicker) control of your strobes, nav lights, etc so as not to blind your fellow pilots.

Speaking of group flights, others like it when you taxi into position and hold all the while sequencing your taxi and landing lights to the correct positions.

I've flown with this unit for over 3 months and, while a bit expensive for what it does, would certainly buy it again as it adds a little something extra to the flight sim experience. It's a good thing any time I can get away from the keyboard to perform a function.

The item offers a inexpensive opportunity to add additional realism to a training environment. Nicely mounts on top of the Saitek yoke assembly. Note, I say 'on top' which makes things a little different then the real world environment. But, still okay.

Worked right out of the box for me! I run Windows 7 on my computer, and it automatically installed as I plugged it in. Came with a hex key so you can mount it to the top of the yoke (which I did for now but will reposition later). Overall, nothing bad to say about it!

The Saitek panels are a great addon to help with the immersion into the simulator. I would rank the relative "need" factor of the three current panels as 1) Multi-panel 2) Radio panel 3) This panel, the Switch panel. This doesn't really detract from owning the panel because I look at these are all or nothing...you gotta have all three :) This one is just the least critical. You really 'set and forget' for 95% of the flight.

The only con I have really for all three Saitek panels is that they don't always work 100% with 3rd party add-on craft. I wouldn't expect them to, I just wish they did.


I don't think I can post a link here but if you want to see the panels in action - look up my channel on YouTube "FlyBman2007". There is a video I made of my simulator components.

Benjamin.

The highest point is the landing gear swith with lights. The size of the set is ok (very close to a real panel). The only two CONS are the impossibility to reassign the magnetos and cowl flaps switches that become inoperant when flying jets. Maybe a new firmware could solve this... Worth the money anyway for those seeeking for a more real sim.

I purchased the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke, Power supply for the yoke, PRO Flight Switch Panel, and the Pro Flight Instrument Panel. I installed them in the order: Yoke, switch panel, and finally the instrument panel. All the accessories are connected to the yoke. I have everything working on a Windows 7 64 bit system I built. It is running an Intel i7-970 processor, 12 GB memory, 1Gb video, and a velociraptor 300GB drive system drive/mirrored 2Gb data drives. I'm flying with MS FSX. I have connected, reconnected, restarted, and turned off the system without any problems. I'm cautiously optimistic after seeing a few bad reviews. Over the next few months I'll be adding more instrument panels. I think having the yoke power supply and as much as possible plugged into the same USB port helps. Having a clean home built system without the vendor's and your kid's crap on it probably doesn't hurt either.

I have the yoke and 3 lever throttle, the rudder pedals and 3 of the saitek Flight instrument panels and the Pro Flight Switch Panel. They work GREAT!

They are HIGHLY recommended. The only reason I gave 4 stars is b/c the switch panel just adds realism to the game rather than any true functionality. These are all on/off switchs which can easily be managed with the keyboard. Of course, I move my keyboard WAY out of the way to make room for the yoke so it's easier for me to have the switch!

I only have 2 complaints..sometimes all the panels don't get started at the same time (probably due to the USB power requirement) so I have to unplug them and replug them...but it's usually just 1 of the 6 devices.....mostly the yoke itself.

The other complaint is that there is no HSI option on the flight instrument panel...maybe in a driver upgrade.

These change the usablity of FSX from tedious to truly enjoyable!