The Brunner Yoke The CLS-E NG force feedback yoke

摘要

The Brunner CLS-E NG yoke is something rather special. In all my years at the controls of virtual aircraft, there have been a handful of those that have left me with a feeling of truly 'being there' and most of those were in full-size simulators. This is the first yoke that made me feel like I was flying a real aircraft. That said, there's one flaw that has overshone this entire review: the price. At €1200 (£1030 approx), the yoke isn't cheap - it's more than ten times the cost of an average Saitek unit. Plus, this is the introductory price only. A single Force Feedback stick, for example, retails at €1800 (£1545 approx). Can any flight sim component really be worth that? This is the question that's been bothering me all through the review. The conclusion I reached was yes, yes it can. To put the price into context, a brand new Nvidia 2080 Ti RTX Graphics card retails at €1500 (£1288 approx). It will last two to three years before it's replaced by an equally expensive graphics card. The CLS-E NG, however, could last you a lifetime. It's a high-precision unit, built with brushless motors and finished with an attention to detail only the Swiss can manage. So yes it's expensive, but as an investment, it's worth its weight in gold. 'As real as it gets' is just an old advertising slogan, and yet, the Brunner CLS-E NG can happily claim to be 'as real as it gets' and I'm sad to see it go...