MOZA AY210 review: pro cockpit feel with a steep cost

The AY210 is a motorized yoke base for flight simulators, and the MFY Yoke is the handle that clips onto it. You can buy them separately or as a bundle that includes a toolkit, a manual, and the power and USB leads you need to plug it in. Table clamps to fix it to a desk are an extra purchase.

MOZA is better known for sim racing wheels. The company was founded in 2012 by automotive engineers and racing fans, started out making camera gear, and moved into flight sims after showing a flight line at the 2024 Flight Sim Expo.

“Force feedback” means motors inside the base actively push on the controls, so the yoke resists, shakes or moves based on what the plane is doing in the game. A regular yoke only uses springs, so it feels the same on a slow climb as it does in a fast cruise.

This is the reason to buy it. The base delivers up to 9 Nm of torque (a measure of twisting force) and 210 N of push and pull force, with 150mm of travel. In practice the controls get heavier in both pitch and roll as speed builds, the way real aerodynamic loads do.

The effects go beyond weight. Testers could feel engine vibration, flaps and spoilers moving, a buffet as the wing neared a stall in a climb, and a bump when the wheels touched the runway. With autopilot engaged, the yoke follows the aircraft’s own control inputs, which is something spring yokes simply can’t show.

Inside, a 280 MHz processor and a 15-bit magnetic encoder (the sensor that reads the yoke’s position) track inputs finely. In basic maneuvering at 5,000 feet, small inputs produced accurate turns and let the pilot set a precise descent rate.

The build backs this up. The base is aluminum alloy with an aluminum quick-release that lets you swap handles fast, and it weighs about 8kg, which keeps it planted. The MFY Yoke is engineering thermoplastic shaped like an airliner yoke, with up to 34 inputs you can assign, hall-effect joysticks (magnetic sensors that don’t drift with wear) and RGB lighting.

The AY210 does not feel right straight out of the box. Pulling or pushing the column for pitch can feel uneven and “sticky,” unlike the smooth, consistent motion of a real 737 control column.

The fix is in MOZA Cockpit Software. Turn on Pitch Friction Correction and the column behaves much more like a full 737 simulator. Some force effects are also a little weaker than they could be, but you can raise them in the same app, which offers individual sliders, MOZA presets and profiles shared by other users.

The testing here used community profiles for the 737 NG and 777 made by a real airline pilot who has flown the 737 and 787. Starting from a profile like that saves a lot of trial and error.

The AY210 was tested in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the PMDG 737-800 and the PMDG 777. MSFS 2024 was picked for its more realistic flight dynamics; the iFly 737 MAX was left out because it is not yet built natively for the 2024 version and handles wind and turbulence poorly there.

• Turbulent approach: a summer landing into Las Vegas with heat, strong wind and thermals from Live Weather. You feel gusts through the yoke instead of only seeing them on instruments, which helps you correct early.
• Curved approach: the RNAV Visual into San Francisco International’s Runway 1R, which ends in a low, sweeping right turn between the KLAUS and SQIRL waypoints. The AY210 tracked the arc smoothly and lined up for a clean landing.
• Comparison: on the same approach, the popular Thrustmaster TCA Boeing Yoke felt noticeably jerkier, though it sits in a far cheaper price tier.

One caveat for San Francisco: the Navigraph database in MSFS 2024 was missing the curved RF leg of that approach, so it had to be added to the PMDG navigation data by hand.

At launch, MOZA priced the AY210 base at $699 in the US (£699 in the UK) and the MFY Yoke at $149 (£149). You will likely want desk clamps too, and if you are building out a cockpit, MOZA also sells an MTP throttle at $329 (£329).

For most people, that is a lot. If you fly a few times a month, a spring yoke will do the job for a fraction of the cost. But if you spend hours on long airliner flights, practice real procedures, or already own a serious home setup, the AY210 changes how flying feels. After using one, going back to a yoke without force feedback is hard.

Before buying, check your space. The base is heavy and needs a solid desk, a cockpit frame or an aluminum profile rig, and the pushing force means a wobbly table will undo the precision you paid for.