…continued from Part 1

Switches on the Body

I must say that integrating battery, avionics, lights and magneto switches to the yoke is a brilliant user-friendly features.   However, I am a little disappointed because the switches on it are only basics and are not as feature-rich as those on my VRInsight Flight Master Yoke II.

Moreover, the magneto switches on the Alpha yoke are moved to the right, which is a bit odd to my eyes.

That is another reason why I hate the curved body shape mentioned earlier.   If the Alpha Yoke were employing a more rectangular body design, these oddities wouldn’t exist, and there might be more switches added to the panel, I hope.

Furthermore, since the switches are placed very close to the yoke shaft (magneto is better), this arrangement makes the yoke handle easily caught in the middle everytime I try to access the switches.

I would say this design aspect hasn’t been thoroughly considered for the real situation in operations.

BTW, the edges of some light buttons are a bit sharp, though they wouldn’t cause any harm to users.

Buttons on the Handle

On the left handle, there are an 8-way hat switch, two vertical 2-way rocker switches, a button and a push-to-talk button in the back.   On the right handle, there are two horizontal 2-way rocker switches, one large (in red clock) and one small button.  In terms of quantity, it is abundant comparing to all my other yokes.

However, the button areas on both handles are a bit oversized to use comfortably unless you have big hands.

From picture below, my left thumb is blocked by the vertical 2-way rocker switches whenever I want to use the hat switch.  I’ll need to lift my thumb up over the rocker switches every time.  This is not comfortable and user-friendly to me at all.

Besides, as mentioned above, there is a push-to-talk button on the left handle.  The message is copied from the company’s product description.

I assume it is the button in the back of the left handle, which is of the same size and color as the white button in the front.  And this is how I use the button.

Then, if the left one is the push-to-talk button, then why put a red button and made it big on the right handle.  There might be a good explanation but I am really scratching my head.

I wish the red button could be placed in the back of the left handle, just like the one on the Saitek’s yokes.  But it somehow ended up on the right handle unfortunately.

Similarly, putting two horizontal rocker switches together simply makes the top row hard to use.

To be frank, I think the button style and button placement on the discontinued Saitek Cessna yoke as shown below are the best among all the others. They are comfortable and user-friendly to use.   
Our thumbs can be placed onto the concave buttons while using the hat switch and/or operating other buttons simultaneously without any hindrance.  Such curves on the buttons are good and really what I like.

Yoke Handle Movements

The push and pull movements of the yoke handle are pretty good with simulated “feedback” force towards the very ends up and down. The rollings of the handle, however, are a little bit soft to me.

A slight increase in the tension for the rolling mechanism would make a better Alpha yoke in my opinion.

To be continued…