After you are done attempting to control your flight simulator with a keyboard and mouse
, you will search for a more realistic control. You will in next to no time realize that it's a choice between a joystick and yoke.
You may wonder which one is the best for you. You may have seen pictures of the new Airbus A380 that features a joystick type control in the cockpit.
In the beginning of aviation, aircraft cockpits were very simple. They had a couple of basic controls and the control stick was one of them. It controlled the pitch and roll of the plane. As the size of planes increased, it got harder to control the planes with just a basic stick and so it was replaced by a yoke. The yoke has been used for decades in the aviation industry and is still used by large jets such as Boeing.
The reason that you'll sometimes see a joystick in large modern planes is that the yoke has been replaced by the stick, because of the use of fly by wire. Fly by wire means that instead of the yoke connecting directly to the control surfaces on the wing and tail of the plane, the stick is connected electronically to the controls. As that is the case, the yoke has been replaced with a smaller stick that can control the aircraft with smaller movements.
The choice for your flight simulator control depends on the aircraft that you want to fly. Yes, a few of the modern aircraft and certainly fighter and aerobatic planes use sticks but the majority of planes still use a yoke. The smartest thing to do is to check the plane that you want to fly and purchase the control that is in the cockpit of that plane.