Logitech Attack 3

The Attack™ 3 is a joystick manufactured by the Logitech Corporation. It has a USB connection, and works extremely well with flight simulators. As a serious flyer who has flown the real stuff, I have always been interested in joystick design and technology and have a number of joysticks for my flight simulators. I bought this Logitech Attack 3 Joystick on eBay for five pounds. It was an impulse buy, just out of curiosity, to see how it handled, and I liked it.

Of course it needed a bit of a clean as the previous owner had managed to get crisps and cola inside the joystick, hence it gave me the perfect opportunity to take it apart to have a closer look at the insides, and I have to say I was very impressed.

This is a very basic self-entering joystick with very good sensitivity and ideal for those who want to learn to fly. The circuitry is around the ST72F63BK2M microcontroller IC, manufactured by SST, which is a fast microcontroller with adequate sensitivity and 8-bit ADC.

There are many switches on this joystick, which are re-assignable to almost any cockpit function. If you are into serious flying, you will probably never use the main gun trigger switch, used in mindless fighting games. I usually assign mine to landing gear.

Back View

Logitech have always made very reliable joysticks that work well and are within a reasonable price range, and this one is the best and most widely used by gamers.

This is a symmetrical joystick and therefore works well for both left handed and right handed people.

Throttle

The throttle is this small rotary control, and it is nothing like the real thing of course but hey - what do you expect for 25 bucks? It seems to work fine though and I am able to set the N1 gauges on the jets accurately without much fiddling.

Switches

I just love flight simulators; however, the hydraulic platforms are the best though. There are many companies out there offering a flying experience on the professional platforms.

For the mindless shooting games, most of these switches automatically configure for weapons, however you can easily reassign them for meaningful functions such as landing gear, flaps, and brakes.

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