I’ve been doing a bit of simulator flying this last year in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. I’ve mostly been doing some sightseeing occasionally, using an old Xbox gamepad. It gets the job done, however, when I started flying in VR some problems arose when it was time to land the plane. I find the landing the most challenging part of a flight, by far. One critical aspect of landing is throttle control, because when landing you want to go slow, but not below the stall speed. I have lost count on the number of times I plummeted from the sky because of stalling and hopeless throttle control. Last week, I had enough and started scanning the 2nd hand market for a HOTAS system (Hands On Stick And Throttle). That is the flying equivalent to getting a steering wheel for your racing games. I finally found a seller, and it turned out to be a real feelgood story.

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