Product Description

Upgrade your flight simulation experience for Microsoft Flight Simulator X with the Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panel. Featuring a stunning 3.5 colour LCD screen, the Instrument Panel can display 6 of the main cockpit instrument panels from Microsofts

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9783 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Saitek
• Model: PZ46
• Released on: 2008-05-02
• Platform: Windows XP
• Subtitled in: German
• Dimensions: 5.71" h x 4.72" w x 3.94" l, .95 pounds

Features

• Take your flight-simulation experience up a notch with Saitek'sPro Flight Instrument Panel! The Pro Flight Instrument Panel features a stunning colour LCDscreen displaying the main cockpit instruments
• Saitek's ProFlight Instrument is compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator and makes the perfect addition toother products in the Pro Flight instrument range
•   Plus, you can choose from up to 6 instruments at the touchof a button to bring an extra level of realism to your flight-simulation set-upwith the Pro Flight Instrument Panel from Saitek!  Display main cockpitinstrument panels from Microsoft's Flight Simulator X: - Altimeter - Altitude indicator - Air speed indicator - VOR1 indicator - ADF indicator - Exhaust gas temperature/fuel flow indicator - Fuel tank-level indicator - Suppliedwith Software Development Kit (SDK), allowing progr

Customer Reviews

Stop, think..."do I REALLY need this ?"
Lets face facts, you're not going to buy just 1 of these, but probably 6.

That adds up to a lot of $$$ regardless what your income is.
Thankfully i only bought 2 of these (thats all that was in stock)...let me explain...

First impressions out of box were:
*Packaged very well
*Units look very smart/impressive/well built
*The little silver desk stand is pretty useless, mine wouldnt stand up (without even having the usb cable connected) - but its a non issue since you're going to mount them on your yoke OR radio/switch panels anyway.
*The screws attaching the panel to the mounting bracket are BLACK. WHY??? The screws that come with the Switch/Radio panels are silver. Minor point, but detracts from building our complete saitek cockpit if we're mounting the FIP to the Switch/Radio panels...attention to detail Saitek.

So i mounted mine on top of yoke, installed the driver software.
Wont run connected to USB slots on the yoke (not enough power), so connect to mainboard usb slot.

Once we start flying:
Cant help notice that the graphics aren't particularly good. The numbers aren't easy to read and the needles (on VSI for example) are aliased badly, i.e. not smooth lines. The virtual cockpit instruments in FSX look much better than on these saitek dedicated devices.

The VSI is not scaled for the plane you are flying. i.e. the yellow and red lines are static. Therefore your cessna172's redline will be at something ridiculous like 300kts. So if you are flying at 100kts, the FSX cockpit needle might be pointing at 100kts down to the left, whilst the Saitek panel is pointing to 100kts to the right. Rather off putting. Surely it isn't rocket science to get the scale dynamically updated ? I guess Saitek expect us to do it ourselves with the SDK.

Even with just the two connected, there is lag between what they display, and what the FSX instruments show. A lag of possibly a couple of seconds, which is enough to get you 'killed' or at least make your flying somewhat erratic. A review by a 'homecockpitguy' on youtube also complained about this (he had all 6 hooked up).
I read the manual that came with the devices, and they mention being able to use these devices in client/server mode. i.e. Your main FSX machine is the server, and you physically connect the Saitek FIPs to another computer, which will receive what to display over your network.
So i tried this, and was pleased to see that even via wifi, the lag was gone for all instruments except the attitude indicator. The instructions for setting up client/server mode were very well explained, and it wasn't very hard.
But you have to ask yourself...do i have a spare computer to dedicate to driving these devices ? one with 6 usb ports ?
[Edit: after further playing, when using in c/s mode and u change the static pressure setting on the altimeter on the saitek FIP with the small dial - the change is reflected in FSX but the value on the saitek FIP LCD does not change ! If the FIP is connected directly to your FSX PC, the value updates on the saitek LCD and the PC cockpit...so there's at least one problem using client server mode]

What else? The 2 little red arrow buttons down the bottom are very small, hard to press when in flight. I guess if u have bought 6 of these devices, then you wont need to press these 2 buttons in flight though. These buttons flip between the 6 instruments the device simulates.
Now when the devices are powered, but you arent in FSX, the devices scroll through a slideshow of Saitek advertising. It's rather annoying that that when you ARE flying, and press the red arrows to choose which of the 6 instruments to show, that the advertising screen comes up as a 7th option. Noone wants to see this, it just kills the immersion.
I think you can change the advertising bitmaps to your own set of pictures, theyre just read from a folder on the comp at runtime...but cant think how it would b useful...it just scrolls through them continuously...u cant flick between them and keep one image on screen indefinately (say for checklist purposes, radio freqs at your fav airport).

It also felt less natural having to look down at these devices, rather than using my head (with trackir) to look at the virtual instruments in fsx.

I think thats all for now. Just want everyone to make an informed purchase, rather than buying 6 at a time without having tried them first.

Think: am i happy to use a seperate computer to drive these ? am i happy for these to block some of my view of the computer screen ? am i happy that their graphics arent as nice as the fsx instruments ? am i happy that they arent necessarily showing accurate information (i.e. laggy/delayed) ? am i happy having 6 extra cables running around the place?

if the answer to any of these is no, you're better off just using TrackIR...save yourself £600 and buy yourself a return trip to australia instead :)

Brillant
I was very apprehensive about purchasing this item, but after installing I was amazed by its performance. Adds so much to Flight Simulator. I will be ordering 1 a month for the next 5 months !