With Microsoft Flight Simulator due to get the Top Gun: Maverick treatment later this week, what better time to take a look at Thrustmaster’s “entry-level and affordable” T. Flight Full Kit X, for Xbox Series X|S and PC?
The T. Flight Full Kit X is essentially two Thrustmaster products bundled together - the T.Flight Hotas One, a plug and play joystick and throttle control, and the T. Flight Rudder Pedals, which feature Thrustmaster’s “S.M.A.R.T” slide rails system.
Thrustmaster has pitched this kit as fully plug and play, as well as completely optimised. In their own words: “This plug-and-play kit allows for quick, super-simple installation — with all functions already configured, for immediate takeoff”.
They say it makes the flying experience “as real as possible”, and that the T. Flight Full Kit X “works perfectly for any gamer of any skill level”. Bold claims.
Straight out of the box, the build quality is exactly what you would expect from a Thrustmaster product. The unit is made from lightweight plastic but it doesn’t feel cheap, and when pulling the levers, joystick, and switches, you can feel the mechanisms at play internally are strong, responsive, and accurate.
The only exception to this is the rocker on the back of the throttle control, which feels a little hollow and unresponsive. It also makes a strange sound when pressed - a sort of dull, plastic click.
Unfortunately, the functions you’d intuitively map to this axis are ones that you’d want to frantically click a lot, making the switch’s shortcomings feel more overbearing than they really are at times.
The joystick and throttle units also detach from each other, with around 1.5 feet of cable between them.
This is useful if you’re playing a game which makes use of keyboard shortcuts and mouse input, since you can place the throttle and joystick on either side of your keyboard (provided your keyboard isn’t too big, which my Roccat Isku FX was).
This comes at the cost of stability - because the unit is so lightweight, separating the joystick from the throttle control decreases the footprint, and makes it easier to accidentally unbalance if you’re wrenching the joystick too enthusiastically.
This is a minor gripe, but personally, I’d have liked a slightly heavier anchor at the bottom of the base of the joystick. It’s also worth noting that with the throttle and joystick clipped together, the unit is sturdy enough to take whatever you want to throw at it.
The way in which it fastens together is also secure, with two rivets and a square clip ensuring there is absolutely no chance of it coming apart without you wanting it to. It can sometimes be fussy to get to snap together, but it’s clear that this is just a consequence of the design, and the cost of ensuring that once it’s in, it stays in.
The pedals are a good addition, and are exceptionally responsive and accurate, although again could do with being a little heavier just in the interests of stability. Sadly the tension in the pedals cannot be adjusted, although in reality the pedals themselves are rarely pushed in most games, instead of being more commonly used for their rotational rails, which simulate realistic rudder or steering control.
The T. Flight Full Kit X connects via a 1.5m USB cable from the joystick, with the pedals connecting to the Hotas One via a reasonably lengthy cable. This is one of the main drawbacks of the product.
If your Xbox sits under or next to your TV like mine does, you’re essentially tethered to within 1.5m of your TV, which really isn’t far enough, particularly if you intend to put the joystick on a stand or table of some description that’s up off the ground.
The USB can obviously be cheaply and easily extended, however, it’s hard to argue that this is something you should have to consider when buying a peripheral like this.
Thrustmaster promises a “plug and play” philosophy with this kit, and in fact, they do get most of the way to this claim. It’s true that it’s detected by and preconfigured for a lot of games, including Microsoft Flight Simulator, Star Wars Squadrons, and Elite Dangerous.
The configurations however aren’t perfect, with it being primarily set up for the Joystick and Throttle - in Microsoft Flight Simulator the default configuration makes no use of the pedals at all, instead of taking the rudder to be on the joystick twist.
There are therefore some minor tweaks required to get it set up to make full use of all the tools you have, which comes as a consequence of the PC and Xbox tending to detect it as a Hotas One with some extra axes added on, rather than a T. Flight Full Kit X in its own right.
Despite the great integration with a freight load of games and simulators, I did have issues connecting the kit to my Windows 11 PC.
I’m extremely tech-savvy, and I managed to get it to work by connecting it to a different Windows 10 PC first, and then connecting it to the Windows 11 machine with the drivers already installed.
My concern is that someone who wasn’t as tech-savvy as I am might not have been able to resolve this quickly, and might have returned the kit as faulty.
That said, I think we should be willing to give Thrustmaster the benefit of the doubt - Windows 11 is relatively new, and it’s likely this issue will be resolved at some point in the future.
Thrustmaster also notoriously doesn’t distribute any dedicated software with their peripherals - you have to go into the “game controllers” section of the control panel, and then right-click it and hit “properties”. This brings up Thrustmaster’s custom menu, which is fully functional although a little outdated in its delivery.
Their argument for this has always been how specialised their equipment is, and to some extent, this is a valid argument. A lot of their peripherals are high end, and it makes sense that someone spending hundreds of pounds on a simulation accessory should know how to access their control panel to configure it.
I think it falls short in this instance however since they market this kit as “entry-level”. That being said, it connects flawlessly on Xbox, with a small switch on the back being used to change it from “Xbox” mode to “PC” mode.
In addition, the documentation that comes with the kit is quite minimal, and some of the quirks go unexplained. There’s a button for example, which when connected to a PC seems to do nothing but turn a light on.
I researched online, and couldn’t really find any explanation as to what it was, and initially just wrote it off as something that worked with the Xbox and was redundant on a PC.
It eventually transpired that the button switches the kit from 4/6 axis mode to 5/8 axis mode. This is a useful feature, but not one that is very clear in the first instance.
Once you get to grips with it though, the kit comes with an absolutely insane number of buttons and axes - the Hotas One alone has 16 buttons, as well as the 3 joystick axis (left/right, up/down, and twist), the throttle axis, the rocker on the back of the throttle control, and an 8-directional hat switch.
The pedals then also add three more axes, the left pedal, the right pedal, and the rudder axis accessed by sliding the pedals forwards and backwards to create a twisting input in the centre.
Truth be told, this is an excess of buttons. On Microsoft Flight Simulator for example, when mapping all of the trims and axes, I found the rotational axis of the joystick and one of the pedals wasn’t mapped to anything.
This means the pedals add realism (since most planes have rudder pedals) but they don’t really give you access to anything extra that you couldn’t just map to the Hotas One - typically you’re just removing a function from the Joystick part and adding to the Pedal part instead.
The throttle control is also sturdy and is notched at 0%, 50%, and 100%. This is great, but in most flight sims 75% throttle is actually a sweet spot, and since this isn’t notched you sort of have to balance the lever at any other point, which can slip a bit when pressing the buttons mounted on it.
Although the pedal tension can’t be changed, the joystick tension can - there’s a built-in tightener on the base. The tension also isn’t linear - it’s lighter near the centre. This is a great touch and a real stroke of ingenuity on Thrustmaster’s part.
With a bit of creativity, you could definitely make use of all the inputs, but it would likely end up counterintuitive - such as adding lights to one of the pedals. It’s definitely better to have too many buttons than not enough though, and I’m glad Thrustmaster have managed to squeeze in as many as they have.
Verdict: 5/5
The T. Flight Full Kit X is, in short, an absolute joy to use. It’s responsive, immersive, and functional, but beyond that, it’s also just incredibly fun.
It adds a layer of immersion to Flight Simulators that you just don’t get with a controller, and the design of the throttle, which is reminiscent of those old Pod Racer arcade games, really brings a smile to your face when you play something more fast paced like Star Wars Squadrons or Elite Dangerous.
If you’re looking to grab an entry-level Flight Kit, or even looking to upgrade from a low end one, the T. Flight Full Kit X delivers in every aspect imaginable. The kit is thoughtfully designed, well built, and although it’s priced a little higher than other kits in the market, it cruises high above them in terms of quality.
The T.Flight Full Kit X is available at www.thrustmaster.com for £159.99
