I’m still putting the finishing touches on my FS Expo retrospective series for hardware because there was an awful lot of great looking hardware at the expo this year. VIRPIL was one to showcase their equipment and they have some great new stuff coming down the pipeline with the latest reveal being their new Expert Series.

New grip, new throttle

VIRPIL has a new line of devices they are calling their VPC Expert Series. According to VIRPIL’s announcement, these are higher end products aimed at the most demanding of virtual pilots with best in class features, quality and accuracy. The accuracy piece is interesting because the VIRPIL reps I talked to at the show indicated that one of the new products in particular, their new grip, is basically a 1:1 recreation of a Flanker grip which is very fun to think about!

We start with the VPC FLNKR Grip. Built with a metal body, 3-trigger module with two flip triggers and a classic single stage main trigger, and programmable status LEDs. This is a close recreation of the real thing and it has enough usable buttons, triggers, and analogue controls to work with just about any sophisticated jet fighter experience. I also spot an analogue brake control on the base which is great for warbird and (typically) Russian jet flying.

In addition to the product shot we’ve also got a trailer here.

That’s not the only product revealed as we also see an update to VIRPIL’s throttle line-up. VPC VMAX Prime takes into account three years of feedback on their MongoosT-50CM3 throttle (I reviewed that one a couple of years back and it remains a personal favourite) and puts it together with a new throttle system. VMAX Prime is the more expensive counterpoint to their less expensive Cadet VMAX but with a metal construction and additional buttons and toggles.

I got a brief chance to be hands on with both of these products at the expo and my first impressions are that they live up to the reputation that VIRPIL has been building all of these years. Hope to check them out a little more sometime as well.

Both of these are expected to be offered for pre-order on July 2024. More news is coming soon! In the meantime, read the announcement here.