I am a true blue Thrustmaster fan, and have been for ~15 years.
I have a Cougar, I pre-ordered it the day they opened up the order forms, almost a year before they shipped. I started using it the day I got it, it has travelled with me to multiple conventions and LAN parties. I have only had one problem with mine in all that time. I'd recommend it to anyone who never wants to buy another stick again. I spent nearly $120 back in the day for an F16FLCS controller, then spent about the same money for the F22 Pro, and another $65 for the TQS. All that means is that $280 for a throttle and stick that are 99% metal construction is not really all that expensive.
PROS
The Cougar is hands down the most customizable controller ever conceived. There are over 120 programmable butons/hats/positions/modifiers, some would say if you add in all the possibilities it is over 10,000 theoretical commands can be programmed into it. They can be set as repeaters, toggles, and key-combos. I am no programmer and am really not using its ability anywhere near the fullest. Construction is also one of the highest points. The stick, the base, the gimbals, even the buttons and hats are made of METAL. This baby is heavy too, at least you 'feel' like you got what you paid for instead of some little plastic toy.
CONS
There have been some teething issues. Almost everyone who has owned their cougar for 2+ years has had to replace the Z-axis potentiometer. This was due to the part being put under stress by actuating the throttle. Thrustmaster has replaced all of the broken Z-axis pots for free to date. The other problem is not so much a wear item as a design flaw; the speedbrake switch (T9/T10) is contained in a housing that is misaligned from the factory. There are half a dozen write ups in the Cougar user-group forums for how to rectify this and avoid having to the TM to replace it when it breaks from being misaligned. The only other flaw that I can think of is the stock gimbal. Although they are metal they DO wear. Mine has thousands of hours on it and was getting a noticeable amount of 'slop' in the middle.
COMMUNITY
Go check out the forums at cougarworld.com sometime. There is a very active community of folks who are constanlty tweaking and adding on to the Cougar. New gimbals are bing produced that exceed the originals, last time I looked there were 3 or 4 different designs. One enterprising fellow has developed a kit that gets rid of potentionmeters entirely and replaces them will Hall sensors. Most of the guys there are F16/FA18 fans, and one of them has built and is selling a kit that takes out all stick movement and replaces it with pressure sensors just like in the real Falcon (that is a VERY expensive mod though).
Bottom line, the Cougar is NOT merely a joystick, it is also not designed for the masses. It is the gold standard and the cadillac of combat flight controllers. Also, if you have been used to CH sticks or Saitek and Microsoft sticks for a long time you may not like the relatively heavy hand required to move the metal grip and 18 pound springs.
