It comes down to this for me. The twisty stick rudder control is good enough for ACM and BFM, but not good enough to tune your firing solution.
When you are in a stallfight and both of you are trying to get guns-on at 100 Mph, the guy with the pedal rudders will kick your ass. Rudder pedals will give much finer control in situations like this where the twist rudders will tend to over-control leading to bounce. In short with the twist stick you'll miss more in low speed situations especially. It matters at high speed as well I find, but not as much as you are less likely to get over-cotrol and "bounce".
It also matters in head-on confrontations. The fellows with rudder pedals can make the fine adjustments much better and will generally out-shoot a twist stick shooter.
I've had a Microsoft twisty stick for many years and still use one. I find if I do 1v1's against good pilots, I'll lose the low-speed HO's at the top of vertical fights most of the time. I think a set of pedals would allow me to make those shots.
I'd like to see a comparison of gunnery percentage between twisty stick users and pedal users. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the rudder pedal folks would have a much higher gunnery percentage overall.
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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com "A pig is a jolly companion,
Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale,
Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you,
When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover,
You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!"
-- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
[This message has been edited by Lephturn (edited 12-01-2000).]
