Customer Reviews

Saitek PS41 Aviator Joystick for use with PC or Xbox 360 Game Console

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This joystick does not function correctly with most Xbox 360 flight games, due to a large deadzone programmed into most games.

If you don't know what a deadzone is, it's basically the size of an area where any movement of a stick is not recognized. If the deadzone is too small, even miniscule movements will register an input. But if it's too large, a player must make large movements with the stick before anything is registered.

The deadzone is meant to make it easier for gamepad players, but the side effect is that flight sticks like this Saitek stick suffer from lack of precision. Only the 360's HAWX game has addressed the issue. For Ace Combat and other games, the huge deadzone makes small, fine movements nearly impossible. You're much better off with the thumb sticks of the standard gamepad.

I prefer having a separate controller and thrust unit but I don't have a table and chair setup; just a couch; so I needed something I could hold in my lap. For Hawx, this stick works out really well except for the occassional reach back to drop a flare. Left hand on the thrust, right hand on the controller and you have 99% of what you need including rudder control (stick twist). This is a good responsive controller that makes the game a lot more fun than the regular controller!

I am happy with my purchase and I would definately buy it again. But I'd rather pay [...] bucks more and have a better designed controller.

Overall this is a three star controller (meaning good, not great), but the low price and lack of options on the market force me to give it 4. Hope this helps!

Here are a few general design complaints: 1) The buttons on the back accidently get pushed from time to time if you have the controller on your lap. 2) The missle button is in the middle with no way to remap to the left button. I suspect they did this for left handers but I think they could have used black unlabeled buttons, made the left button the missle button and added a manual switch to reverse the missile button from the left to the right. 3) The flap over the button is kind of stupid.

>> P.S. I paid $49.99, beware of price gouging by third party vendors.

I received this controller from a competitors website due to the fact at the time, strangely enough this same controller was mis-priced on Amazon for nearly 120.00 for the Xbox 360 console version (non PS3). The price listed now is accurate (around 50 bucks) - and I would have surely bought from Amazon - this site is great.

All I can say is, whooooooahhh. Plug this baby in the Xbox 360 usb port and you are ready for intense battles. Sooooooo much fun. I got Ace Combat 6 - Blazing A's 2 - and Hawx just so I could experience the joystick (bought the games from Amazon :-P). The light weight that others may mention are about the only shortcumming I can think of, but they DON"T (emphasis on DON"T) affect gameplay at all. This cool joystick sits right on your lap if you like, works for both lefties and righties - and sits amazingly stable on a flat table. The control is accurate, fantastic, ergonomic and non-flawed. Changing views to a first person in the cockpit, and using this stick is absolutely thrilling. Don't hesitate to buy this device. The next gen flight games are crazy - but they get placed on a whole new interactive level with this stick.

Not a gimmick, you simply have better control of the planes and weapons with this stick - straight up balls to the walls blast :)

I've played several 360 games now with this stick: Hawx, Ace Combat 6, Blazing Angels and Project Sylpheed (a space shooter), and ultimately, it makes the games a LOT more fun. It's configured perfectly for Hawx, AC6 and the Blazing Angels game - just plug and play. I had to tweak the controls a bit for Sylpheed, but was able to fairly easily come up with a configuration that worked fine. It's a very different and, IMO, superior experience playing flight games with a joystick compared to the Xbox controller, and the PS41 does the trick nicely. And it's a great value as well! Now I just hope we get some more games to play on it.

This is a lightweight control but very well balanced. You need to put it at a level where your arm remains horizontal or below. It is calibrated very well out of factory but I doubt that would last over a few years of use.

It works just like that with MS Flight Sim X Deluxe. I did not have to install Saitek driver for it. Probably I would get more options to reassign the buttons with Saitek app but haven't tried that yet. By the way, this is on Windows 7 RC Build 7100.

This joystick does everything it says it will do and does it well. It is responsive and the control layout works well on ace combat and tom clancys HAWX. The throttle is not well placed but it beats paying $100+ for the dual controls that are out there.

My only wish is that there would be a force feedback throttle with some resistance to add to the realism. Other than that, great product!

I received this flight stick from this Amazon seller a couple days ago, but didn't try it out until last night. Yes, this stick is very light, but it's solidly built. There's a switch on the right side that you have to turn to M1 if you want to use it with Ace Combat 6 or H.A.W.X. I have both games, but only tried it out on AC6.

First off, the learning curve or getting used to using a flight stick as opposed to a game pad, can be a trying experience. What I found disturbing about this flight stick is the trottle controller. Althought the trust control is very smooth, it's placement in front of the flight stick leaves much to be desired. After 5 minutes of play, the palm of my hand, near the thumb, hurt really bad. Even right now as I type this review, more than 14 hours later, it's still sore. The designers could have easily placed this trottle to the left of the stick, or even as a switch at the base of the stick (I had a flight stick that was like this). I understand they probably wanted to have the PS41 as abidextrious as possible, but considering the Hori Ace Combat 6 is for righties only, the same could have been made for Saitek.

If it wasn't for the akwardness of the throttle control, I would rate this flight stick higher. I can't in good faith give this stick a higher score when the base of my thumb is sore after only 5 minutes of use. The actual stick is quite good. Nice response and has the twist feature for the rutter controls. I'm not sure what that cover over the X button is for, because on every flight game I have played, the X button is for the map. I don't need this covered. I guess they' were trying to go for realism of an actual jet aircraft's controller, in which this would cover the missiles? Dud.

When I bought this stick, it was something like $49 and change plus $8 shipping. A few days later, I see this seller charging $119.95 plus $30 shipping. What the hell is going on, man?! That's insane. Not only is this stick not worth $120, but shipping is no where near $30. As of today, the seller is out of stock.

I bought this flight stick, having never used one before, and the last time I played a flight game was Blazing Angels on original Xbox.

That said when I pulled it out of the box I immediately noticed it felt very lightweight, which surprised me since it looks rather hefty. The second disappointment was the throttles do not work independently. On this model they are fused together. At first I was concerned how the placement of the throttle would feel during the game. Once I used it I found the placement was fine and felt fairly natural during game play. This is mainly because the base is quite large. The large base also makes it feel stable despite being light weight. There is no rumble or force feedback on it, that was a little disappointing.

The game I bought was Ace Combat and the Aviator is great for it. I definitely think it adds to the immersion of the game. The lay out is great, you fire guns with the trigger, target and fire missiles with the buttons at the top of the stick, and the button that has the cover can either display assorted radar or toggle between specials and missiles.
The buttons on the front of the base are auxiliary commands that aren't used much during game play.

The stick itself is responsive with a good spring action. The throttle is responsive with the right amount of resistance IMO. Theres also a little tick in the middle so you can feel were forward thrust and break depart. The little POV hat moves the camera around your plane which looks cool but too disorienting for me during game play. All the buttons feel solid and well constructed , similar to the Xbox controller.

Overall I would recommend this product because it is ridiculously fun especially when put with Ace Combat. And it's cheaper than getting the Ace Combat bundle yet still really fun.

Does what it's advertised to do. I have not used it with the XBOX 360 yet so can't comment on that. I'M using it in Flight Simulator X in Vista 32 bit and had to update the driver which I did through the device manager after letting Vista recognize it. I assigned the axis and buttons through FSX with no problems. Everything works OK in FSX except the trigger will not control the brakes. FSX views it as an axis instead of a button so there is no way to assign it.I have a feeling it will work great with the XBOX 360.

The joystick is very light but solidly built, it works fine without any problems and if you only have the standard xbox controller I am sure you'll have fun with the saitek aviator joystick.

I am a truly fan of flight games and I have almost all ace combat titles, H.A.W.X and others including the Hori joystick for the ps2 and xbox 360.

Comparing the performance improvement I could get with Hori's products, I would stay with Hori. In my case, the problem was the integrated trottle and the yaw left and right controls. The way they are integrated in this control does not let you easily improve your skills with these games.

However it is well priced and I just hope Saitek keeps improving its products for consoles, especially regarding confort, (your hands and fingers can get really tired with this joystick) performance and compatibility (why you have to purchase another joystick for PS3 compatibility?).