Best yoke for Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2024 – Turtle Beach, Logitech and budget picks

Honeycomb Aeronautical arrived on the scene and shot to the top of most people’s favorite flight sim yoke list almost overnight. Starved of any new real peripherals for many years until Flight Simulator 2020 came along, simmers had bumbled along with the Saitek offering (see below) in whichever flight sim they were playing, be it X-Plane, DCS World, War Thunder, or whatever.

Suddenly there was a, albeit considerably more expensive, well-built, more modern looking piece of flight equipment to snap up. And snap it up they did, so much so it is still pretty hard to get hold of even now and there are plenty of waiting lists on the go if you don’t want to pay inflated eBay prices.

Granted the throttle quadrant doesn’t come with it as per the Saitek/Logitech system but one is available for another decent chunk of your cash but there can be no doubt Honeycomb Alpha is the best out there at the moment and is unlikely to need upgrading any time soon.

How deep do you want to go?

If you are just dipping your toes into the world of flight simulator peripherals you might not want to go all-in from the off with a cash outlay more than twice than what you can pick up the Saitek for. if you don’t mind you certainly won’t regret it. If you get into swimming in a serious way you will only wish you bought this in the first place, but you could also flog your Saitek further down the line and upgrade.

You can still always spend more by trekking into the ‘enthusiast’ market but in terms of mainstream peripheral manufacturers this is an amazing piece of gear that is unrivaled right now.

The option on offer from Logitech G Saitek is a slightly different beast from the above. there is no doubt the quality is not the same, although it is still a sturdy unit made of plastic that clamps easily to the desk. Where the bonus of picking up this yoke is the fact that it is more of a complete system. This yoke is almost an entry point into Logitech G Saitek’s world of flight sim extras. Pedals, extra quadrants, even instrument panels to add to the sim experience all fit nicely here. Of course, you can use them with other yokes too, but when everything matches with such ease, it’s an attractive proposition.

The Logitech G Saitek yoke has been around the block and has been available for a while so a remarkable number of flight simmers have it and made the leap from a standard joystick and never looked back. I actually had a slight nightmare getting it installed in Windows and it kept saying the drivers were incompatible with my version of Windows and it took a bit of Google-Fu to find a driver that installed flawlessly. This is a bit rubbish when you consider how long both parts of that equation have been on the scene, but after this initial frustration, it has worked flawlessly.

It doesn’t have the full 180-degree rotation of the others on this page which is a point of criticism for some, but if you are unsure as to whether splurging out on a very specific peripheral to play, let’s face one or two games, might not be for you, then this is a more palatable option when you look at the price point. There are plenty of assignable action buttons and knobs to take it beyond ‘gamer’ and into serious usage/play too.

And in case you were wondering about the manufacturer’s name, Saitek has been producing flight sim products for many years and has no come under the loving arm of Logitech, a move that wasn’t always warmly greeted by its fans.

Right, let’s get this out of the way at the start. The Velocity One from Turtle Beach – a company mainly known for gaming headsets on consoles isn’t out as yet.  With Flight Simulator 2020 already on the Xbox in July, the USP of this unit is that it works on both the console and the PC. It’s billed as a full flight system (you can read more about it at Turtle Beach’s website. What we do know about it at the moment is that it is going to be a contender – not in the Xbox space – it has no competition there so it is the natural champion, but in the PC flight sim space. Already simmers on Reddit and YouTube are waiting expectantly to see how it stacks up when it is eventually released.

Featuring a modular quadrant and a light-up status indicator panel the Velocity One already comes with things you might want to add to your system further down the line.

It also has rudder controls built into the yoke so pedals aren’t needed to get the same effect comfortably which is a nice touch (if obviously aimed at the console kids.) This offering from Turtle Beach is arguably the best flight simulator yoke you can buy right now. So, if you’re serious about aviation, definitely consider this option.

The CH Products Flight Sim Yoke is an affordable and reliable entry-level yoke that comes in a one-piece package. Its plastic design includes a yoke, integrated throttle, and a handful of switches. Coming in at just over $100, this yoke is a budget-friendly option for anyone looking something that fits the bill.

While opting for this wallet-friendly yoke won’t give you the full Microsoft Flight Simulator experience, it’s basic but not awful. Of course, there are limitations, and any serious flyers should likely upgrade quickly. With that being said, this is a great introductory flight controller for anyone trying our Flight Simulator for the first time.