I don't have a big hand by any stretch of the imagination. Concert piano player I ain't! I originally transitioned from an old Thrust Master HOTAS to CH around 8-9 years ago. The difference in the two sticks was the TM was a much smaller (read shorter) stick. It didn't have quite as many hats on top and I liked it because the only thing that ever broke on them was the hat. I had replacement soldering of a new hat down to about 5 minutes and TM would send you free hats ands pots whenever you asked for one. In fact, they used to throw 2 or 3 of them in the shipping bag iso of one. I still use my original TM pedals today. They are around 13-14 years old now. Ok, on to the CH equipment.
IMHO using 2- 4way hats actually takes longer than using the one 8 way hat. Yep, the durn thing is located way up there, a mile high on top of the stick but after a month of using it you don't have to worry, it does become nature and the "big stick/stretch" feeling will go away. The "one hat does everything" concept is very fast and in a game where a split second means the diffference between capitolizing on the other guys mistake and being in an extended fight where you might get jumped. It's very important that you maintain visual on the guy at all times.
If you don't believe me ask any one of the old timers. In a dogfight, they set you up then either watch you to do what they want you to do or watch you to make a mistake that they can kill you with. They are watching your every single move throughout the fight. Never losing sight, looking for that tiny advantage that will get you killed.
Hope this helps.
