ErgoMAXX Flight Stick
$399.95
Description
The grip that actually fits your hand. Revolutionary concept, wow. Open source and free to download!
The Problem With Every Other Stick
Ever tried to wire custom electronics into a flight stick? Good luck. Most grips are sealed-up plastic tombs with proprietary connectors, potted circuits, and hat switches that cost more than your avionics. Want to run your own trim? Hope you enjoy buying a $2000 mixer unit just to translate button signals into something your motors can understand. Unbelievable.
So, I did what any obstinate engineer would do when faced with the prospect of more credit card debt. I got frustrated, and built something completely from scratch that actually lets you do what you want with your own airplane. If you're lazy and like my design, I will make one for you, too.
4-8 Week Lead Time
What It Is
A fully open-source, 3D-printed flight stick grip engineered for pilots who are tired of holding onto what is, let's be honest, a vaguely phallic tube with zero ergonomics. Most grips look like they were designed by someone who's never held anything in their life—and shaped by someone who's only ever seen one thing. The ergoMAXX is sculpted around the human hand—not the other way around.
Printed in PA612-CF (that's carbon-fiber-reinforced nylon, for those keeping score). Heat-resistant, impact-resistant, lightweight, and strong enough to survive whatever you put it through. Including your landing technique.
Open Source. The Whole Thing.
Every file. Every dimension. Every weird little chamfer I spent three hours thinking about. It's all yours. Download it, print the base, CNC the plates, modify them, slap your name on it—I genuinely do not care. Just don't sell it. Because I am trying to sell it. I designed it, after all. You are lucky I graced you with the damn files!
Now either build it yourself or buy it from me. No matter what you pick, you end up with something better than what the other guys charge four figures for.
Want the print files? They're free. Go nuts. Just please print it with a flame resistant material..
Desire a custom faceplate? DXF on the site!
Need the full CAD files? Contact me directly, I will share them!
Grip Wraps
Your hands, your call. Wait, that sounded really suspici—
Bare - I really, really don't recommend this. PA612-CF, or any CF filament for that matter, fills your skin with carbon fiber splinters. If you buy this, I hope you have a plan! Or maybe you like to fly with gloves?
Cotton - Classic hockey tape wrap. Grippy, functional, and the same stuff special forces guys use to wrap their rifles. Replaceable in about 90 seconds. You'd think this wouldn't work, but it actually feels super awesome.
Suede - Ultra-suede wrap. Soft, premium feel. For pilots who like their cockpit to feel like the inside of a German sedan. This is what the ErgoMAXX was meant to be, and is what is in my plane!
Buttons & Switches
Illuminated Square Buttons
Choose your faceplate layout—both versions are downloadable and printable:
- 2-Place Faceplate — Two lit square buttons. Clean, simple, all you need.
- 4-Place Faceplate — Four lit square buttons. For the pilot who can afford aileron trim.
Every button lights up on press. Because feedback matters, and also mostly because it looks cool. Yes you will need to wire up a positive lead for trim anyways, so might as well use it for lights!
SPDT Switches — This Is the Big One
We don't use hat switches. Hat switches are overpriced, fragile (ask me how I know), and worst of all—they're digital-only. You press them, a signal goes to a controller, the controller talks to a mixer, the mixer finally tells your trim motor what to do. It's making a mountain out of a molehill just to move a tab three degrees.
The ergoMAXX uses SPDT (Single Pole, Double Throw) switches. These are real, mechanical, center-off toggle switches. Here's why that matters:
You can wire trim motors directly. No mixer. No controller. No interface board. Just wire the SPDT A/B leads straight to your trim motor—both are grounded by default, and pressing one button flips it to positive.
The switch IS the controller. Your grandpa's Cessna worked this way and it was fine. We just put it in a grip that doesn't look like it was designed in 1974.
This alone saves you hundreds of dollars in electronics you don't need, and failure points you really don't want.
If you have a GSA 28 or the like, you can wire these trim A/B leads to your autopilot servo, and wire your trim motor to your servo. Assuming your trim motor is under 1A/12V or 0.5A/24V, as per servo max amperage, it will even automatically control trim electronically, or enter passthrough mode even when the servo breaker is pulled.
Finally, if you do wish to use this with a mixer, you can still do so. Either way, you will need to wire the positive input of the flight stick to your trim circuit breaker (I recommend 2A). And when I said wire directly to your trim motor, you better have electric or mechanical stops!
And for those of you that don't understand that voltage is an illusion, if you, yes, press both of them, even though your A/B leads are now both "positive," what is 12-12? I'll let you think about that for a minute.
PTT (Push-to-Talk)
Standard on every single ergoMAXX that includes a plate, not included with Bare units that have no plate option selected. If you ask me in your order notes, I can customize the color of this button if you tell me a funny joke.
Face Plate Options
The plate that sits on top of the grip—where your buttons and switches mount. Pick your material, or print/cut your own:
Brushed Titanium - For the pilot who wants their stick to match their watch. Lightweight, corrosion-proof, absurdly good looking. Worth it!
Carbon Fiber - Because of course we offer carbon fiber. It's an engineering company. We'd lose our license if we didn't.
Aluminum Black - Yep, it is a black metal face plate. Clean, professional, and looks good! Not as good as brushed titanium though!
Print It Yourself
The grip body is designed for PA612-CF (carbon-fiber nylon), but honestly, if your printer can handle it, run whatever you want. It's your stick.
Download the STL/3MF files for the grip body and both faceplate versions from our site. If you need the parametric CAD source files for modification, reach out to us directly and we'll send them over. No gatekeeping, promise.
Recommend settings:
20mm outer brim
3 walls
25% 3D honeycomb infill
Detect thin walls
Seam position: Random
Top surface pattern: Hilbert Curve
Optional: Fuzzy skin, contour for non CF filament grip texture
Designed, printed, and assembled in the United States. Except the LEDs. Those are from China. You know how it is.
Or at least that's what I WOULD say if most of you didn't think that half the stuff you buy on Aircraft ****** wasn't just resellers buying stuff from Alibaba and slapping some packaging over it!