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Idea for rudder pedals

D

dhl1986

Guest
I purchased the Saitek Pro Flight pedals a few days ago and have been trying them out, and have a few complaints not specific to this model, but to all rudder pedals. I am tall and have long legs and this forces me to sit kind of bow legged in order to not bang my knees on the bottom of the desk I use. I have a pretty typical desk as far as height goes, so that is not the problem, and I realized that all pedals on the market that I have seen would have this problem. I can't stand autorudder, and I think that using a twistgrip joystick could possibly form some bad habits for a real pilot, so I would like to have some form of pedals to use in the sim. This made me wonder if there is a product on the market that is a flat mat you put on the ground, similar to Dance Dance Revolution mat for those that are familiar with the game... something perfectly flat, that would respond to the pressure of each foot.
 
I recently had to jack up my desk on blocks (looks ridiculous, by the way) in order to use a new desk chair I got that wouldn't go low enough. The side effect is that now I no longer suffer from "rudder knees" as you described. It might be an interim solution until someone invents a rudder mat.
 
i am not lucky enough to own a set of rudder pedals, but from looking at a picture of them i had a thought.

why not modify the angle to better suit you? if you raised only the back of the pedal base, it would allow you to sit further from them.
 
I am not aware of any. I do know that pressure transducers are pretty inexpensive. However, most are on/off switches and do not vary the voltage or ohms.

Homemade rudders are not hard to make. You could adapt some to meet your needs. However the easiest thing for you to do might me to get a lower chair that will allow you to stretch you legs out more.
 
I also have long legs. I use just the opposite, I have my chair as high as it will go. I also use CH's flight yoke which allows me sit in front of my desk as opposed to under it. My pedals start at almost the front plane of the desk. No "go-kart" flying for me. Good luck.
Curt
 
All the more reason to start cobbling together a dedicated flightsim desk! :)

Here is what mine looked like on first assembly. I've since bumped up the seat height another 3" (another couple 2x4s) and tweaked the fore/aft position of the pedals a bit. Feels pretty much like a low-wing Piper now...including the lower back fatigue I get after a few hours in the freebie Ford Tempo bucket seat (I get the same in the older Piper seats too!). I want to upgrade the seat to something better someday but for now I can't beat the pricetag, especially since I can let "otto" fly a while as I get up and stretch my legs every so often! LOL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moparmike90/sets/72157613098452413/


 
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I took a slightly different approach by building a "ramp" for my Saitek pedals. The "ramp" is angled at about 30 degrees, and I pushed it farther away before securing it to the flooring with two screws. Then, by securing the pedals to the "ramp", I can sit with my legs sorta outstretched, but firmly sitting on the pedals.

I had to tweak the angle a couple of times, as well as the distance from my chair, but I finally got it right.

The brake action is perfect, as is the rudder action, of course. No more "rudder knees" for me.
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HighGround22 said:
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I took a slightly different approach by building a "ramp" for my Saitek pedals. The "ramp" is angled at about 30 degrees, and I pushed it farther away before securing it to the flooring with two screws. Then, by securing the pedals to the "ramp", I can sit with my legs sorta outstretched, but firmly sitting on the pedals.

I had to tweak the angle a couple of times, as well as the distance from my chair, but I finally got it right.

The brake action is perfect, as is the rudder action, of course. No more "rudder knees" for me.
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Click to expand...

that's what i was trying to say. i knew it would work! :applause:
 
If you want max realism, you suffer bow legged. :icon_lol:

I'm 6"4 and many real aircraft I've flown have forced me to sit bow-legged. The super decathlon I used to fly was one of the worst. There are some tail draggers I won't take up without another pilot to save me if my awkward position won't allow me to manipulate the rudders and brakes well enough. One Aeronca champ I've flown left me unable to work the heel brakes at all.
 
Moparmike said:
. . . . .Here is what mine looked like on first assembly. I've since bumped up the seat height another 3" (another couple 2x4s)
Click to expand...
Mike, I noticed that you've accomplished something I wish I could do with my dual monitor setup. I have yet to be able to get any of my rigs to accept the spread across two monitors. I use an NVidia 9600GT card and even with the latest win7/64bit drivers, that option doesn't seem to be available.

Great looking setup by the way, and as you said. . .the price is sure right.
 
falcon409 said:
Mike, I noticed that you've accomplished something I wish I could do with my dual monitor setup. I have yet to be able to get any of my rigs to accept the spread across two monitors. I use an NVidia 9600GT card and even with the latest win7/64bit drivers, that option doesn't seem to be available.

Great looking setup by the way, and as you said. . .the price is sure right.
Click to expand...

Actually on that setup I was cheating a bit. It's a pain to setup like that. You have to do it each time you start a flight
Those shots were on my old WinXP rig with an 8800GT and running FS9.
I started with FS9 running in Windowed mode, then opened another view window of the VC view and panned it to the right a bit.
Next, I drug it over onto the second monitor and then switched to full-screen mode...the second view window gets locked onto monitor #2.
BUT...the second window doesn't pan when I pan the VC view on monitor #1 using TrackIR.

I haven't been able to do this type of setup in FSX either...full-screen mode and extra windows on a second monitor acts a little freaky on my new machine.
 
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