The flight sim hardware market has definitely heated up over the last few years with new companies moving in to challenge sometimes decades old veterans in the field. One of them, WinWing, has just revealed production and purchase information on a new entry level joystick now available for pre-order. Let’s have a look at the Ursa Minor
Entry level with haptic feedback
WinWing have made a series of higher end sticks that have been competing with the likes of VIRPIL, VKB and Thrustmaster in recent years and to-date I haven’t talked much about them but I will have to change that as the company continues to expand its product portfolio. The latest is of particular interest as I think the entry level market has been a little underserviced in recent years. VKB’s Gladiator NXT EVO aside, there hasn’t really been much in the way of new products at the low end until now.
Touted as a new series of flight sticks, Ursa Minor is a joystick system equipped with X, Y and Z axis Hall effect sensors, a long travel axis for throttle control, a haptic feedback system, Soviet-style flightstick with multiple hat controls, a quick release maintenance system, glass fibre reinforced nylon gimbal, and adjustable dry clutch damper.
From the marketing materials, it looks like other variants are intended to come out later on with a side grip and an Airbus-inspired civilian airliner style grip too.
I’m also really interested to see how the haptic feedback system works as it would be the first time we’ve seen some sort of feedback on a stick in a long time. This isn’t the same as force feedback which is applied to the axis but rather appears to be a PlayStation or Xbox style vibration system located inside the grip. Very interesting!
Pricing and shipping
WinWing are saying that their new product has a retail price of $169.95 USD but are shipping at a value price starting at $110 USD plus a bit more for shipping. The price breakdown across the company’s multiple storefronts is as follows:
- Global Shipping: $110 USD https://winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
- US Site: $115.5 USD https://us.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
- UK Site: £113.3 GBP https://uk.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
- EU Site: €105.6 EUR https://eu.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
- AU Site: $187 AUD https://au.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
- CA Site: $162.8 CAD https://ca.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=551
It appears that there is some wiggle room on the pricing with the following statement:
Note: The actual selling price at different regional sites may be adjusted due to exchange rates, and the final price will be based on the real-time price on the day. No free shipping and tax included for Global Shipping site.
Stormbirds 
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