Think twice before you buy the Flight Deck

That could have turned out really well. Unfortunately, Turtle Beach focused on the wrong areas and neglected exactly the elements that are most important when designing a HOTAS system! I regret I can't recommend the Turtle Beach Flight Deck. Watch the review to see exactly why.
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[@WatchMysh]

The title is missing a "y". 🙈 It was late... very late...

[@Xephyrra]

Another great review, hitting on all the important points. Love the new format as well!

[@WatchMysh]

Thanks! I just added "myself" to the mix. It's that what you mean?

[@Xephyrra]

@@WatchMyshYes, it's a nice change having someone talk to you. Also I thought you would be ugly since you didn't show your face before, but you're actually quite handsome!

[@WatchMysh]

@@Xephyrra lol thanks! Made my day. :D

[@TheMNWolf]

Maybe it's a different kind of flight sim that I tend to do, but I can't imagine taking my eyes off the monitor to look at a display on the throttle or on the stick and that being a good decision.

[@WatchMysh]

Exactly. They should have rather ditched the touchscreen and put the saved money into a proper gimbal.

[@viktorhobl6447]

Great review! I can 100% confirm all those mentioned things! I personaly had: - T-flight stick, T-Flight Hotas. No comment. Good for start thou. - Then i bought my first Saitek X52 Pro (it's Logitech X52 Pro now). This one served good but wear out quite soon and started to have more woble and freeplay on stick. - I tryed Saitek X56 Rhino for space combat. That one felt great with the weakest spring on the stick. But sadly the ergonomics are not great for my small hands. Sold that one too. - So i went to T16000 with throttle and even with pedals + one more stick to try HOSAS. In the end i decidet to sell it because of the gimble tension arround 0,0 and the overall build choices. - I went back to my second Logitech X52 Pro which i upgraded with magnets and lube and this one still serves well. Great ergonomy btw. Recently i bought this Turtle Beach Velocity flight deck. On the videos an reviews it look sooo good, but guess what. It's basicaly just shiny, more tech loaded and expensive T16000 with the same bad gimbal on stick. I literaly just send it back. From my point of view it's absolutely not worth the money. It feels like cheap base with tons of random good and bad addons. If there was only different gimble and more consistent quallity on all elements... It's so pitty, noone really tell's you abbout the gimbal and i saw so many reviews. I recomend to stay with the X52 Pro and save some money for VKB. At least that's what i'm doing right now. I really appreciate you honesty MYSH. Great work!

[@WatchMysh]

Hey mate. Thanks for the long and thorough comment. :) I don't know why some reviewers don't mention the gimbal. Maybe they don't know anything better than cup and ball and think it's the standard. Check out my hotas overview if you ever need a new set. I try to inform as honestly as possible. I'd suggest you should try out the VKB Gladiator if you're searching for the best price to performance. Otherwise I think a cam based stick would make you really really happy because they are monstrously precise around the center, especially with no center cams.

[@Ainar86]

This just confirms what I've been saying for a while already. Turtle Beach are the new Saitek of the sim space: amazing looks, good on paper, abysmal hardware and build quality that's not worth half the MSRP. Like it happened with Saitek though, I hope their emergence points the "pro" companies towards the direction current consumers are looking so we get even better stuff from them down the line.

[@WatchMysh]

Well said

[@thereaper8593]

Correct me if I am wrong but I swear my VKB nxt evo space combat edition has better placed buttons and seems to be better made.

[@WatchMysh]

The Gladiator sits two leagues above the Flight Deck in terms of build quality.

[@thereaper8593]

@@WatchMysh And thanks to you I didn’t end up getting another low quality joystick. I would rather the thrust master MFD to a screen on the joystick but as a vr player, ideally, more games start making use of hand tracking would be cool (and save me money XD)

[@THX1138765]

Can confirm, my NXT is a game changer.

[@renesakata1737]

I actually bought this Velocity HOTASS very cheap, hoping to get back into Space Sims. I think I have used every major brand out there before, including TM, Saitek, Logitech, Virpil and VKB. The most daunting thing for me was always, setting the HOTAS up in SC or ED. Unfortunately, no Sim dev cares about Turtlebeach, so there is no device support and I have to do all assignments manually. I have that thing for 2months now and still did not feel the mood to use it..haha. Something about it just doesnt sit right. I have also noticed that it has more physical buttons than you can assign. I mean you can click them, but they do not show up in Windows or Flight Hangar. Weird… also, the B1 button on the stick keeps falling off.

[@WatchMysh]

"Button keeps falling off" sums up the quality impression I had.

[@shyneus9773]

To think you could buy a WinWing Orion 2 throttle and stick for just £35 more than this. I love their F-16 throttle, been serving me well.

[@WatchMysh]

Here in Germany it's 15€ less for the WinWing kit

[@Oshia666]

Where? For the stick and throttle I see are £600+

[@shyneus9773]

@@Oshia666 The WinWing site. Orion 2 HOTAS metal warthog, to be specific. £411.85 Choosing their other grips are around £515 to £560. Plus with UK trade channel shipping is free still, I think.

[@Oshia666]

@@shyneus9773 No shipping, vat or import taxes? The last time I ordered abroad I was hit by all sorts of fee's and it upped the price a lot. I have the X52, I've had it for many years but the gimble is naff, it sticks and squeaks and minor adjustments are difficult. I was considering the Turtle Beach or the Warthog but if I can get the Orion 2 for the same price I sure as hell will.

[@shyneus9773]

@@Oshia666 If you use their UK site and order from the UK warehouses, no import or taxes. Shipping might still be free, unsure if that was temporary when they opened the UK stuff. I got my orion 2 with the f16 grips for ~500, no import or tax, no shipping cost. That was months ago tho

[@DanielDrake]

excellent review

[@WatchMysh]

Thanks :)

[@sneakyfildy]

got x52 pro for 100 euros a few weeks ago almost new, works great, but I want to add weight there and if possible decrease the tension near edges of a gimbal. Bought some counterweights used to balance car wheels, will try to stick them into the base/throttle XD VKB is practically unavailable in Europe, they offer 'air delivery' which results in smth like 250 euros only for a stick, crazy

[@WatchMysh]

VKB has an email notification for availability alerts. I've heard it works quite well. :)

[@sneakyfildy]

@@WatchMysh after I will break x52 during my attempts to modify it 😅

[@WatchMysh]

@@sneakyfildy lol. Don't kill it. The X52's problem is the center spring. But there surely are mods out there to soften it a little.

[@THX1138765]

That's not a crazy price for a well made stick. VKB sits several notches over Logitech and Thrustmaster. Look into Win Wing, might be easier to get and pricing is more transparent.

[@det.bullock4461]

Yup, just like I imagined. The "gamer" look and the touch screen were already a giveaway if you ask me.

[@WatchMysh]

Totally

[@happinessguy9354]

i love your videos

[@WatchMysh]

Thanks! I love you folks who are watching & loving them! :)

[@zoisbekios5239]

I pulled the trigger and gave this one a go, Im waiting for it to arrive tomorrow and now im seeing all the negative feedback. If i have any QC issues i may return it. I was mostly drawn by the sheer amount of controls available. This is admitably my first HOTAS system so the idea behind it was to have something that can adapt to all the different games i want to try with it, MSFS, Star Citizen (mostly), warthunder and maybe some BF2042. The display and general looks attracted me as a new buyer. Unfortunately all the other products have been on the market for several years and ive seen their prices only go up. On forums i also see people very agressively trashing on products. Logitechs deck for example has its QC also coming up at every comment even after several years from its release. Also looking into the competition I was unable to find any announcements by another company developing anything similar. Especially in terms of some kind of haptic feedback. Are you guys waiting for any releases? In what price range are we expecting them?

[@WatchMysh]

If you want quality devices I'd suggest you take a look at VKB, WinWing and Virpil. Check out my hotas overview video to see what's available. :) Like I mention in the video: for the same price you can get a Winwing Hotas system that's high end entry in terms of quality. It's also very adaptable. Get a set of pedals to go with it since it doesn't twist and you're good. There are lots of combinations available that are easily as versatile as the Flight Deck. The displays are just gimmicks in my opinion and look flashy. I'd rather get something with real flip switches you can operate without looking at them.

[@WatchMysh]

@@natedogg7376 Glad you like yours. Other people comparing stuff is not a "hate echo chamber" though. The WinWing set is cheaper and several leagues above the Flight Deck in terms of build quality. So that's not elitism either. Why pay more for less even if you don't fly a lot? I' d suggest you go try out the mentioned products. You'll spot the differences immediately. I had high hopes for the Flight Deck since we're still missing an affordable mid range HOTAS system. In my books is was a disappointment though. //edit: A VKB Gladiator NXT EVO combined with an Orion2 also is around 400€ and of a lot higher quality. Don't even need pedals then because you have twist. That's just how it is - no hate here.

[@diddelmann9145]

Hi did you get your Hotas and try it with Star Citizen ?

[@zoisbekios5239]

@@diddelmann9145 Hey, yes. I am playing star citizen with it. Overall it is a mixed experience. The OLED screen is still not very functional. The abundance of buttons tho is. Quality wise its okay. I was lucky and received one of the fine units. I do have some weird bugs here and there, but nothing a restart doesn't fix, and firmware updates keep improving the functionality of the devices.

[@ZidentZ]

Hi Mysh! I remember you made a video about bombing guide i requested in War Thunder, since then.. i give it a try to play in Air SB which the gamemode i prefer over RB (i suck) now, maybe u can make a video about how to Air SB (Objective to do, Mouse Keyboard Settings suggestion, How to not how to do, Tips etc.) can you?

[@WatchMysh]

Hey :) I'm sorry but I can't since I don't play air SB. I mostly play IL2 or DCS if I want to play a "proper" sim so I never got into War Thunder SB.

[@ghost6174]

Just got this first try only the right throttle works when split to to throttles when both connected none of the throttles work if any one could help wood be good but yer

[@WatchMysh]

Return. Buy proper system for the same price.

[@nonamenolife01]

Ich habe es schon unter dem Community Post vorhergesagt

[@WatchMysh]

Jup. Ich hoffe ja immer auf das Beste aber im Grunde war es zu erwarten.

[@BekoPharm]

Oh. This could have been good. Ah well 🤷

[@WatchMysh]

yeah ... :-/

[@billfletcher9761]

You seem to be the only one not impressed so I guess I will have to take your comments with a grain of salt. I will agree its too expensive.

[@WatchMysh]

Hey. :) Depends on the bubble you're getting your reviews from. I'm by far not the only one. A lot of very experienced HOTAS content creators share my point of view. To verify just go to r/hotas and ask about the Flight Deck's overall quality there. Or in the HOTAS discord. Doesn't matter.

[@billfletcher9761]

@@WatchMysh also most players are coming from thrustmaster x or one and compared to them the flightdeck is miles ahead. When you have graduated to the pro league with vastly superior tech then dropping down to the flightdeck is like slumming it. I personally am happy with my flight deck especially using the lcd buttons to test combinations etc. I come from logitech yoke or T.16000M and feel i have upgraded with turtle beach giving then dues afterall they are reasonably new to the flight controller world

[@WatchMysh]

@@billfletcher9761 Glad you're happy with it. Coming from a wobbly Hotas X the Flight Deck must feel like a surgical Instrument. Still I'm just comparing price to performance and build quality within the bigger picture. The Flight Deck can't compete here. I wish it could since I like the idea of a "good casual midrange set". Maybe next time? We'll see.

[@acexprt]

You’re comparing a console flight stick to a PC flight stick. Console players always pay a premium

[@WatchMysh]

Good point. I review for PC, though.

[@pellebackman4673]

First😅

[@WatchMysh]

Hi! :)