Pro Flight Instrument Panel

by Saitek

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4 x 4.5 inches ; 14.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000VLNXRU
• Item model number: PZ46
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #13 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Game Hardware > PC Game Hardware > Controllers > Flight Controls
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panel (F.I.P.)

The perfect add-on to any civilian Flight Simulator X cockpit, the Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panel can display the readouts from 12 separate instruments at the touch of a button. Featuring a stunning 3.5-inch color LCD screen, seamless integration into FSX provides accurate, real-time access to important flight and aircraft information.

 

Toggle between 12 different instrument panels, or purchase additional F.I.P.s to create a larger configuration which displays multiple panels simultaneously. Twin dials allow easy Altimeter adjustment (in Hg), HSI (Setting Course and Heading), plus VOR 1 and 2 (Setting Course), while a set of hotkeys can add or remove on-screen windows like GPS or ATC.

For detailed images of the Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panel's display capabilities, click on the links below:

These 6 guages are included with the software disc			6 additional guages available for download at saitek.com
Attitude Indicator	Heading Indicator	Turn/Slip Indicator	VHF Omnidirectional Radio (VOR) 1	VHF Omnidirectional Radio (VOR) 2	PFD: Primary Flight Display
Vertical Speed Indicator	Altimeter	Airspeed Indicator	Airborne Direction Finder (ADF)	Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI)	Engine Gauges

 

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Flight Simulation Software Compatibility	System Requirements
FSX  —  Flight Simulator X FSX: Acceleration	USB 2.0 Port Windows XP, Vista or 7 (32- and 64-bit)

 

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Versatile Placement Options

Saitek's Pro Flight Instrument Panel was designed to accommodate a wide range of flight simulation setups. Whether mounted to the base of the Pro Flight Yoke System (sold separately) or freestanding on your desk (as shown in image), you have the freedom to place the F.I.P. wherever it's most convenient for you.

For larger image Click here

Fully Customizable to Meet Your Needs

Modular and interchangeable, Saitek's range of Instrument Panels can be situated one on top of another or side-by-side. Want the Multi Panel above the Radio Panel? Done. Want your Switch Panel to the left of your Yoke? Go for it. Easy-to-use mounting brackets provide the means to arrange your flight simulation setup in a configuration only limited by your imagination.

 

 

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Build the Ultimate Virtual Cockpit

With Saitek's Pro Flight Yoke System, the configuration of your dreams can become reality. From just a Yoke and a Throttle Quadrant, easily add Rudder Pedals and a multitude of Switch, Navigation, and Instrument Panels to fully customize your flight simulator. Commercial or private, seasoned or novice, you have the ability to equip your flight simulation setup with all the essentials needed to vastly improve your skill set and muscle memory.

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Additional Saitek Pro Flight Products

Use these other fine Saitek Pro Flight products to build the ultimate virtual cockpit.

Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals Control the rudder and toe brakes of your aircraft with your feet ...

Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel Expand the number of controls for your flight simulation setup...

Saitek Pro Flight Yoke and Throttle Quadrant Highly engineered to meet the exacting needs of the true flight simulation enthusiast…

Saitek Pro Flight Multi Panel LED displays work in real-time with Flight Simulator X ....

 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Saitek Instrument Guage, March 4, 2011

By 

sandecamp - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Flight Instrument Panel (Personal Computers)

I have purchased three of the Saitek Panel Guages. All of the devices work well and are in sync with MS FSX. They are somewhat CPU intensive, so one needs lots of CPU speed and memory. Their number one benefit is that they free the user to use the entre gaming screen for scenery. The gauges improve the feeling of realism considerably. Last point, they seem to be happiest using a single dedicated USB port.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome...but no better than instrument only view in FSX, September 5, 2009

By 

Charles W. Stout (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pro Flight Instrument Panel (Personal Computers)

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.

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great addition to a flight sim, December 11, 2011

By 

SameOldStory (US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Flight Instrument Panel (Personal Computers)

First a little bit about the unit itself:

OVERALL - 3 3/4" wide, 3 3/8" high, 3/4" deep. The plastic mount adds more depth, of course.
SCREEN - 3 3/8" diagonal. 2 3/4" wide, 2 1/16" high
INSTRUMENT BEING DISPLAYED - varies. Mostly about 2" in diameter, or less.

With the above dimensions you can find a few full-face pictures on the internet, shrink them down to the proper size, fold/cut to size, and see how they'll look.

The biggest difference is that THIS is a, full color, light emitting display. They can make a big difference in learning to fly.

My big concern, before buying one, was that the instrument images looked too small. Because the image is bright, though, I find the displays more than adequate. And I have poor eyesight.

There really is only one problem, and that's the price.

A complaint about Amazon - All reviews seem to start with those that have the most points. The problem with that system is that quit often those reviews are old and no longer accurate.

A case in point - the newest driver has ALL of the instruments shown on the Amazon web page. You don't have to search for, and download, anything more (officially).

Also of note is that some opinions in older reviews is misleading or based on misconceptions. Most good games will require fast computers and faster video cards. That's a given. But some people have no idea how airplane instruments work. The Pro Flight Instrument Panel IS NOT LAGGY! That's the way aircraft indicators work. Remember this - They tell you where the aircraft WAS and what it WAS doing, NOT what is happening NOW. Civilian stuff is like that. So if you want the very best, join the military.

If you run out of USB connections on your computer and don't have a powered hub to plug these things into DON'T BUY IT. Plug a lot of power hungry equipment into the back of the Saitek yoke (with power supply) and you can expect problems too.

Finally, you don't have to be a professional pilot, or licensed private pilot, to KNOW how to use this stuff. Does anyone really expect Saitek to make a manual comparable to The Instrument Flight Manual: The Instrument Rating & Beyond (The Flight Manuals Series), or actual flight school text books? True, some real pilots buy this stuff for many different reasons, and they DO know how to use it. But most of us buy these things for greater realism, and the simple fun of learning. That's part of the fun for me.

The point is that you need to understand, and learn, how to use the equipment that you buy.

REVIEW
(finally)

This item is almost all PRO (no pun intended). As I said the newest drivers have 12 instruments included, not 6 as on the web page. Some are for older aircraft, most are for modern aircraft, and one is almost a "glass" panel. The last (PFD: Primary Flight Display) is the only one close to being for commercial jets.

The main point of the instrument panels is that they are easy to read and always in the same place. When you're coming out of a turn and heading for the landing strip you don't really want to zoom in on the cockpit and try to read the altimeter and speed as you check on your glide slope. Are all of the adjustments made? Ok. NOW you can zoom out so you can look out the cockpit window.

Some on-screen instrument panels such as the Attitude Indicator, or the Turn/Slip Indicator have no numbers to read. A simple, short, glance tells the story.

A search online will provide a few more gauges as well as show you how to make modifications to the ones provided.

Did I say that the buttons on the left side are easy to re-program? Well they are.

I gave this item 5 stars because it really is good. If Saitek were to drop the price down to around $75 or $85 I think that they would sell thousands more than they're doing now.

This is the list of what I would like in descending order. But don't forget that you can switch the display if one or another looks more important to you.

1) 7 Instruments - Attitude Indicator, Heading Indicator, Turn/Slip Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator, Altimeter, Airspeed Indicator, and Horizontal Situation Indicator. (Cost about $910)

2) 4 Instruments - Vertical Speed Indicator, Altimeter, Airspeed Indicator, and Horizontal Situation Indicator. (Cost about $520)

3) 2 Instruments - Horizontal Situation Indicator and PFD: Primary Flight Display. (Cost about $260)

Knowing that I want ALL of them, I have to say that the "Southern Cross Flight Panel" is a MUCH MUCH better deal at $999.

My intention is to get only one more Pro Flight Instrument Panel. But I'll probably order a Southern Cross Flight Panel after I can read some objective reviews. And who knows, with luck Amazon will be selling them by then.

The only problem that I ran into was about 30 - 40 minutes after loading the driver/software on to my Windows 7 (64bit) computer. The instrument display died. I restarted the computer and it hasn't had ANY more problems. It used to be almost mandatory for you to restart after loading drivers/software. That rule may still apply, it seems.

END NOTE
One complaint that I've seen is that it displays ads for Saitek stuff like yokes, throttles, and peddles. All stuff that you would buy long before you would buy one of these. An interesting side note is that you can delete all of the ads (except for the serial number screen which I think is hard wired in) and put in your own pictures. The actual display is 320 X 240. But if you just dump any size JPG into the folder it'll display properly. Almost, that is. Some pictures don't look their best unless you crop & resize it yourself. So right now I have it doing a slide show of various aircraft that I downloaded. When you start up FSX and switch to an instrument it'll stop doing the slide show.