Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals

Whether you’re a huge fan of World of Warplanes, War Thunder, Rise of Flight, or any other popular simulator, you likely know that an enjoyable time goes hand and hand with a realistic experience. Although you can always simply use a mouse and keyboard, one of the best ways to improve realism is by including all of the lifelike controls in a joystick, HOTAS, and/or pedals. They not only offer improved access to your in-game controls, but they can significantly boost the way you experience the action.

Flight simulators have been in existence for decades, but today’s most recent flight simulators are complex works of art that showcase how far realistic 3D rendering has truly come. What better way to experience it than upgrading the way that you take off, land, and maneuver in the sky?

As a new release that’s specifically designed for full compatibility between both PC and Playstation 4, the Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals offer a huge upgrade for those who already use the Flight Hotas 4 Joystick.

Today we’re going to see what these pedals have to offer, how they’re designed, what kind of features they offer, plus their connectivity and compatibility options. We’ll take a neutral approach and look closely into each detail to offer a clear and in-depth review of them.

Ergonomic Design

By taking a quick glance at the Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals, you’ll first likely notice how realistic they appear. Boasting a truly ergonomic design, they’ve been designed to accomadate both of your feet, with enough space for the entire length of your foot to rest comfortably on them. Each one is equipped with a heel rest that offers a slight “lip” towards the end to make sure that each foot doesn’t come off when you’re in the middle of the action.

What’s more is that these are fully removable if you’re not a fan of the way they position your feet, or if you’d opt to position them in a different way. Alternative configurations are made entirely possible this way since you can decide to place your entire foot on the pedal, or simply rest the ball of your foot towards the middle of each pedal. The choice is yours, and that’s what we like to see – a nice range of customization right out of the box.

Best of all, the base of the entire unit has been designed for a great deal of stability. Weighed down in all of the right places, it’ll stay sturdy and in-place, even when you’re constantly using them for hours at a time.

Differential Braking

Each pedal is positioned side by side and measures 10 inches (25 centimeters) in length, giving you plenty of space to rest your feet on them in whichever manner you’d like. In order to give a more lifelike experience, Thrustmaster made sure that it offered differential braking.

The differential braking feature is used as an additional form of directional control by letting you press one pedal harder than the other and steer to safety. As a real-world feature in most modern aircraft, this is often used when no other forms of steering are available, or when your default steering controls have failed.

S.M.A.R.T Slide Rails

Known as the S.M.A.R.T (Sliding Motion on Aluminum Rail Tracks) slide rails, the Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals provide a smooth system of four individual slide rails in the proper position for optimum movement when you need it most. It’s a system that utilizes industrial-grade aluminum to provide a low-friction motion for pressing the pedals in as smoothly as possible.

When you press each pedal in and then remove pressure, it’ll self-center the rudder axis to provide an ideal balance of both resistance and smoothness, giving you the full effect that you’re actually in the cockpit.

Versatility and Compatibility

Although the Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals are designed for Playstation 4 and PC, they’re completely suitable for virtually every type or kind of flight simulator that exists. Whether your game showcases aerial combat, civil flight, space adventure or evasive action, the versatile design can benefit you in all of the different scenarios you may encounter. Since it’s not specifically geared towards specific game titles, it’ll work equally well for War Thunder as it will with the latest Star Citizen game.

As far as compatibility goes, we’ve already discussed that it’s designed to be used on PC (Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP) or Playstation 4 consoles, but we haven’t discussed specifically how it connects to your system. Using either USB and/or a proprietary RJ12 connection, you can have it fully functioning in a matter of minutes once you plug it in. Virtually any game that supports a multi-USB input and rudder-control will work with it.

In order to achieve the full functionality and take advantage of a wide range of customization options, we highly recommend that you install the T.A.R.G.E.T. advanced programming software on your PC. It opens up all of the possibilities for customizing the pedals to function with all of the proper controls with whichever simulator game you’d like to play. You can program the axes of rudders and even the differential brakes.

Best of all, if you already own or have been thinking about owning the Flight Hotas 4 Joystick, you can really benefit from the inclusion of pedals. The software that’s used to configure the joystick can be combined with the rudder and the MFD Cougar control panel so your system recognizes everything as a single USB-connected device, ultimately simplifying the way that you connect and put it to use. Additionally, you’ll be given full freedom to create your very own individual profile or access one of the several available profiles from the Thrustmaster online community.

Final Thoughts

It’s been well over ten years since Thrustmaster has released a pedal/rudder control system so we’re very happy to see that they’ve put a huge amount of effort into perfecting the functionality, features and usability of the new Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals.

Offering a user-friendly, ergonomic design, they give you an improved sense of realism to take your in-game flight simulation experience to the next level. Each pedal measures 10 inches in length and is paired with a removable heel rest and a rigid feel so that your feet are given plenty of traction for perfecting the way you control your aircraft.

We’re also really impressed with the differential braking feature, since it brings an added sense of realistic control that you’d actually experience in a real-life scenario, if you were actually flying in your own cockpit.

Smooth movements and improved control are incorporated with the use of the unique S.M.A.R.T. (Sliding Motion on Aluminum Rail Tracks) slide rails that give you precise control over your rudder. Additionally, the T.A.R.G.E.T. software opens up a whole realm of customization options that can surely bring your simulation to the next level.

Overall, while the Thrustmaster TFRP Flight Rudder Pedals aren’t a necessity for every simulator-guru, they definitely provide a wealth of benefits that simply can’t be overlooked. We’d whole-heartily recommend them to anyone looking for the most realistic, feature-driven flight simulation experience possible.