Favorite stick

[wildcowboy]

Hey all, Im trying to get back into sims after quite a while off on a real world deployment. Im in need of a new stick. Want something programmable and possibly going as far as a HOTAS setup. Anybody have opinions of what's out there. Your expetise is apprciated.[&o]

[Hard Sarge]

Logatech (spelling should be wrong)

has some nice decent sticks

Mircosoft got out of the market, so while there stick was not too great, it was very handy

I got a wireless stick from logatech (kid got a puppy and it likes to chew on my wires !!!!!), over all pretty happy with it

while not a true programable stick, most sims now, are programable, so it works the same way

HOTAS are nice, if you can get used to it, I used to have a real nice Thrustmaster set up, it had a number of buttons you could set up, then hit a switch and change all of the bottons to another setting, but unless you spend a lot of time with it, so it becomes 2nd nature, it can be very HARD to use

HARD_Sarge

[widowmaker1974]

i had several logitech sticks and they areok.i now have the saitek x45 and love it.look at them and i think you willlike them for the price.about 80 dollars.http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/joysticks.htm

[Marc von Martial]

The Saitek EVO is very nice. Even more since you can adjust the ergonomics.

Other then that only Thrustmaser is a real alternative. I find the Logitech sticks to decease too fast

[Hard Sarge]

I loved the old Thrustmaster Sticks, I still got 3 or 4 of them sitting on the wall now, hassle is they break to fast

( I had a few friends who worked at EB at the time, and they would tell me to just bring it in, and open a new box and trade sticks with me, which I had about 10 of them snap on me, they had a heavy duty spring that would give (and if you a simmer, you know you don't ruff house a stick)

I still like there sticks, but with out a trade in friend working in the area, I am a little worried about how long they will last (then again, the last stick I got from them, took me a few days working with sand paper to get all the edges off of it so I wouldn't tear my hand up)

(funny as I sitting here, I can see a CH stick, 2 Thrustmasters, a Mk III weapons control system and some cheap sticks !!!!)

so over all, would have to say to go with what you like

HARD_Sarge

I had a great stick, programable, it was called a Talon (forget the maker) it plugged into the puter and the keyboard plugged into the stick, hit a button on the base and you could have 4 different sets of programable buttons, had a hat switch and 2 smaller hat switches, modled after the F15 stick, and it was huge, but the puters changed the layout of the plugs and couldn't use it any more

[Hard Sarge]

Wow
if you are HARD core about it how about this

The CH Throttle Quadrant USB is the highly anticipated multi-engine throttle quadrant you've all been waiting for. Now, gamers and pilots alike can experience the most realistic simulated flight control available. With features including physical detents, reverse thrust and full programmability ...
More Details

# Product Features6 Axis 24 Buttons
# 6 Physical Detents
# Fully Programmable with CH Control Manager software (included)
# Control Manager software enables 350 button positions
# Compatible with Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
# Compatible with all Windows based games
# Built with the same rugged construction you've come to rely on with CH Products
# Made in the USA with a limited 2 year warranty
# Can be setup as either prop or jet engine planes

HARD_Sarge

[Hard Sarge]

for Hotas sticks, I am seeing some Thrustmaster set ups running from 60.00 to 300.00

the cheaper ones are strange, the throttle hooks up to the stick (guess for when you not using it)

HARD_Sarge

[Marc von Martial]

I loved the old Thrustmaster Sticks, I still got 3 or 4 of them sitting on the wall now, hassle is they break to fast

Write their customer support they´ll flood you with spare parts. I once did sent them a letter about how much I love my old Thrustmaster stikc but was not able to find spare parts for it. They send me a box, man except for the plastic handle and base I could have built two newones from it [;)]

[Hard Sarge]

hmmm, but mine are all pretty old, maybe like 10-12 years

man used to love the ones with the high tenson springs, the longer you tried to turn, the HARDer it got to keep the stick in the turn

I think I was playing Strike Commander at the time, in a mean, nasty turn fight and look at my arm, and all the blood vessels were standing out and my whole arm is shakeing, from trying to hold the turn !

the hassles with those was the springs would spring too fast, almost couldn't turn left, but the stick would flop right

hopefully they are built better now

kind of thinking of trying the cheap combo, as much as I fly sims, I should get back into the hotas set up

Man, I was looking at one of them, the weapon side, had a 8 way hat and 4 4 way hat switches, I don't have the hand control to use all of that in a dogfight

HARD_the_Ham_Fisted_Sarge

[Marc von Martial]

I think mine was like 8 years old when I wrote them [;)]

[HomeFries]

I use a TM Cougar with the (gameport) CH Pro Rudders, and I love the combo. There are some quirks with the TM that you will eventually encounter with heavy use, all of which are addressed at Cougar World. I personally have only encountered the dogfight switch issue, and that was after 3 years of fairly heavy use. Likewise,the Cougar is very moddable (again, see Cougar World for details).

For the Cougar, the programmability is unsurpassed.

For reliability, you can't beat CH. Those will last you 20+ years without having to replace them. They are also very programmable (although not to the extent of the Cougar), but I don't like the way the interface actually changes the joystick in the windows settings when you go from regular to programmed mode. I think the TM solution is much more elegant.

The "feel" is great on both setups; other people can chime in with their preferences.

My .02,

[Hard Sarge]

you know, it is a shame, that one of the bigger posts here is about what stick should somebody buy or what stick do you like vs what stick I like

ahhhh

oh well

guess I go do some flying so I can talk some more

HARD_Sarge

thanks I will look into it

[Hard Sarge]

Hi Mad G
I don't know, I didn't really like the early CH sticks, I had 3 of them, 1 completely died, the other two, just lost center and couldn't be reset (even though they had sliders to reset them)

I used to try a lot of sticks, and I had a full hosta set up, with rudders and throttle, but once the MS stick came out with the rudder in the handle, sort of stuck with that (even though I didn't really like the stick itself as much, it was handy and easy to use)

which I must say, I never got into the rudders too much, didn't feel right when I was using them,think I was expecting more of a gas petal type action, then a up and down slide (LOL I am going back to Aces of the Pacific and SWOTL here)

HARD_Sarge

[HomeFries]

Hard Sarge,

Wow...that's the first I've heard of a CH product going bad. I acutally had one of the original 2 button CH sticks that was an absolute monster. I upgraded to the original TM FCS stick and had centering probs...wished I'd held onto the CH.

I now use the CH pedals and USB Pro Yoke (for FS2004) and I'm very happy with those as well.

Actually, the original CH rudders were the gas pedal action; the pros use the sliders for rudder and the gas pedal for differential braking. My only gripe with the CH is that the feet are too close together; the TM Elites give the best rudder "feel" (but alas, no differential braking).

[Hard Sarge]

yea,the rudders I had were from Thrustmaster, and were just up and down sliders

used to notice, that I would get into a fight, get on the other planes tail, then start to use the rudder to improve my aim, then the other plane would roll away, I would snap into a counter roll to follow, and only later would I notice that I was still holding the rudder as I had at first !

guess I could control my hand and my eyes, but my feet wouldn't do what I wanted

yea, the old white base, 2 button stick, with the 3 sliders on it for adjustments (think one of those is a throttle ?) yeap, had one completely die on me

if you remember the good old days, you used to need a card(then most sound cards added a game port to them) so you could plug the stick in, some of the better cards came with a program to help calibrite the sticks, would get the stick all set, then while flying the nose would just start going up on it's own, they wouldn't hold center (think it was nothing more then the gibles wearing out)

oh well, will say I got my moneys worth out of them, so no complaint about CH from me

and like I said, I loved the Thrustmasters, just don't think they really tested them, maybe they had a machine tester, and that would say, go left, go right, go up, go down, and do that over and over and the sticks would past the test, but a person who uses the stick, most times, goes left, goes left, goes left, goes up, goes left

hmmm, I think I had about 5 MS sticks go bad, maybe it is me

HARD_Sarge

[HomeFries]

Best way to get used to rudder pedals is to fire up MSFS and practice coordinated turns w/ the cessna. Rudders are also a big player in some aerobatic moves. After a while, it feels unnatural not to use them.

I remember when I started flight training (after a stiff regimen of Falcon 3 and Chuck Yeager's ACT), I tried using the stick (not rudders) to taxi on the ground. Old habits die hard...

Those CH pedals and MSFS 5.1 helped get me through flight school!

[Marc von Martial]

Pedals, that´s something I allways wanted to buy. But then again I´m not such a good pilot that it would be worth to buy them now [;)][:o]