too bad oz it might be the stick then.
as for rudder pedals when my beloved sidewinder ForceFeedback 2 got a drink spilled on it and stopped working completely I bought a saitek x45 and hated everything but the throttle.
the x45 rudder rocker switch was intollerabel for accurate rudder control so I bought CH pro pedals which being underpowered by my pc usb bus were pretty spikey for the 2.5 yrs i have had them. but i suffered through with the ch pedals because they were still way better than the x45 rocker rudder though i missed my ms sidewinder twisty bad. unawares that all the ch pro pedals needed was a powered usb hub which i now have and they now provide very very smooth rudder response.
its taken me at least 2 yrs to get proficient enough with rudder pedals to the point where i have the reflexes to take adjusted deflection shots while moving the rudder to line up the shot. but having already gone through that I and probably anyone you ask who has made the transition would not want to go back to twisty sticks and definitely not rudder rocker switches.
and honestly experiencing this ch gear at its full potential it is superior to even my favorite microsoft sidewinders in terms of accuracy and range of motion, reliability and response.
though the old ff2 still has the realism of resistance vote for me because its mechanical motors set to centering only felt just about like what the cables and pullies and wind did on the real airplanes i flew. so in that regard ms ff2 still takes it but for sheer killing power and smooth accurate response (when fully powered with a belkin usb hub

) CH stuff just blows saitek microsoft and everything else outa the water.
really enjoyable using CH gear and this is from someone who will not be happy with anything less than perfection

id recomend the ch pro pedals its what I been using for past few years
and now I have my ch fighterstick which rocks
and I still love my old saitek x45 throttle which I still use even though I have an x52 (the trim wheels and evrything else suck on x52 even though the stick on x52 is way better than x45 it dosnt matter cuz i use the ch fighterstick haha)