Saitek Aviator Joystick (Xbox 360/PC)

I bought this joystick as Amazon recommended it to play IL2 Sturmovik on the Xbox 360. I have a PC but haven't tried it on that due to lack of flight simulators. If you don't want to read the whole review I will summarise the good and bad points at the end.

The stick itself comes in a big box that is suprisingly light. Which made me a little nervous. On getting it out of the box it does feel light but well made. It is nicely designed, with attractive little details such as the logo on the side and the bolts around the switches. It also has a flip up hatch over the bomb button which is a nice touch and you end up closing it just so you can push it up again later. Oddly the wrist rest comes in bits in the box and you have to assemble that bit yourself. You will need a small philips head screwdriver as one is not provided. It only takes seconds though.

Starting with the top of the stick, this contains most of your fire buttons, bombs, rockets and the targeting button. In the centre of these buttons is a direction stick that you can use to look around 360 degrees. This is a really nice touch and means that you can scan the skies whilst keeping the plane flying dead ahead.

The front of the stick has the throttle lever. On the PS3 I believe there are 2 levers but on the Xbox they are joined together. Apparently this means that the Xbox gets a better twist on the handle. The twist is used to control the rudders. On the back of the stick there is the large Xbox button that is on all Xbox controllers, the "start" and "back" buttons, another stick and then 4 other buttons. These perform functions such as "map" and "follow target". The middle stick is used to select wingman commands.

Also in this array of buttons is the microphone jack. This is where one of the problems lie with the joystick. The headphone jack will not fit the jack off the standard Xbox360 headset. It has no slot for the black connectors on either side of the jack. I trawled the internet for answers and apparently if you can get through to Saitek they will send you an adaptor. Why they don't include it is beyond me. Otherwise you will need a wireless Xbox360 headset, or as I did, dug out my orginal Xbox 1 headset and used that. This is a big drawback to me especially as this means I can't use my surround headphones with the standard jack when using this stick.

The second big drawback is the lack of rumble. You get so used to feeling a rumble when you are hit in xbox games that without it often you die in multiplayer without being aware you were being shot. I wish this had been added.

There is no force feedback on the joystick and the resistance is provided by a large spring around the base of the stick. This works fine. On most flight sticks there is a dead spot where slight movements of the stick has no effect on the plane. This is no exception and you end up sometimes tapping the stick to make slight adjustments. It is not too bad though and in the past most flight sticks I have used have been similar or worse.

On the base of the stick it has little rubber feet and they hold well on my glass desk. I usually use the stick on my lap though and that works fine.

To summarise I am happy with the stick. It feels well made and is intuitive to use. The "look around" stick on the top is great and the throttle and missile switch are all nice touches. There are still some glitches using the stick with IL2 such as the lack of brakes when landing but apparently these will be fixed in the game shortly.

The lack of rumble and the ill thought through headphone jack are a big miss but it does feel like a well programmed stick that is designed for your Xbox. And I haven't seen any others. If you like flight sims and want the controls to feel more natural than the standard xbox controller (which I don't think handles flight sims well) then I would recommend it.

Pros:
Nice looking
Well laid out buttons
Good in game functionality
The "Look around" stick
fun to use

Cons:
No rumble
Headphone jack not compatible with xbox360 standard jack. You will need either the original Xbox 1 headphones or the wireless one
Slightly light weight of the stick
Slight dead zone in the centre of the stick

I bought this ahead of getting IL2 Birds of Prey on the Xbox 360.

Prior to getting it I gave it a whirl on Ace Combat 6 but found the Dead Zone to be just too big, for all planes of movement. Also the button required to do High G manoeuvres is on the front of the joystick base panel the opposite side from the throttle making it fiddley to use in a dogfight.

Anyway I kept hold of it as I had actually finished Ace Combat anyway and awaited the arrival of IL2. Low and behold the joystick was feeling quite good for this to start with and I really wanted to like it. At first I thought it was just me needing to get used to the controls but again the Dead Zone issue arose and I find I'm slewing about all over the place when trying to aim. The Rudder on the other hand seems to have no deadzone in this game and as a result of the twist part not being properly aligned my aircraft drift right all the time. I know some folks will accuse this as being the torque of the engines but I can see the rudder on the plane is not straight and it doesn't do it when I use the normal joypad.

So it seems this is actually a flaw in my joystick, only more testing showed me that the LB button is stuttery only working if pressed at a specific angle. And the Xbox Guide button only works at random as well and sometimes only if pressed at the same time as another button. It doesn't bode well for build quality so it's getting sent back as clearly not working.

Other points to note specifically for IL2 BoP: it's been said the deadzone issue is likely due to game design and MIGHT get fixed in future patches but I'm not keen to wait and see, I may have finished the game by then. Add in they forgot to map a wheel brake button making the capture airfields multiplayer game nigh on impossible (again to maybe be fixed in a patch). This all adds to the negative points of the joystick.

So why not give it 1 star, it is actually a nice joystick and I so wanted it to work well. For the most part the button layout is nice and the resistance levels just right on the stick. The throttle in particular is nice and smooth and precise making it ideal for setting speeds in game. And while the thing feels like it's a bit lightweight the wide base makes it very stable.

In conclusion, should have been great but I might wait until they make a new version before I consider buying one in future.

When I received my order from Amazon I had a slight suspicion that I had been sent a returned unit. The reason is that the box was not sealed and the lead was wrapped up in an untidy fashion. Also there was no manual or disk of any sort. However, the joystick was still fixed to the packaging with a massive nylon tie-lock so I gave Amazon the benefit of the doubt.

However, my suspicion has grown when I have found that there is a manual available online and this is needed to explain some of the features, such as the Mode switch. So looking like I was sent a 'used' model.

The manual describes a wrist support and how to fit it - there was no wrist support in my box, adding to the theory that I was sent a 'used' unit.

I also found on the Saitek website that there are software drivers and application software needed for PC use. No software was provided with my joystick, further adding to the theory that I was sent a 'used' unit.

Onto the joystick itself. After some random fumbling with the Mode switch (no manual remember) I got it working with IL-2 on the XBox and was at first pleasently surprised. Having the throttle is excellent as I found I was accidentally adjusting the throttle when I used the normal gamepad. The stick itself seemed more natural. But then as I tried to line up on an enemy aircraft I spotted a massive flaw. The deadband is huge - that is you have to move the stick a long way from centre before anything happens. This means fine adjustments are very difficult and I find myself continually overshooting where I am trying to place my crosshairs and when I try to correct I overshoot the other way. I find the fine control needed to shoot down an evading enemy is much easier with a normal gamepad.

So if it weren't for the deadband I would have given it 5 stars, even with the suspicion that I have receiced a 'used' unit which is missing some bits.

As it is I'm considering returning it to Amazon as incomplete and unfit.