I use one of these:
I've been using it for close to 2 years with this sim. I would venutre a guess that I have just as much if not more detailed control over my aircraft. My throtel is the scroll roller, left click fires my primary and right click fires all weapons. B drops bombs and A and D move rudders. It's a lot diffrent that using a standard mouse. I tried that and it really blew. With this set up you have the entire movment of the joystick in your thumb.