There's no way I would have paid $300 for the setup.. even knowing what I know now. Even though I'm in 'like' with the stick, it does have a few minor issues that a LOT of people are bitter about... things that should have been found and corrected before they even began to sell the stick in the first place. This is not a $20 throwaway... this is supposed to be a high-grade HOTAS setup.
I got very lucky and found it for sale (new) at Amazon.com for $199.99 with free shipping. For that price (33% off) I was willing to take the chance of hating it, knowing I can resale it on Ebay for what I paid. I see now that
they've raised the price to $252, so it looks like you've missed that boat.
However, $252 is still almost fifty bucks cheaper than what you're looking at, so click on that link and determine that for yourself. List on this IIRC is $329 but everyone's non-sale price seems to hover right at $299, so keeping that in mind your $298 is not that good of a deal.
If you search the
Aces High Message Boards and the
LOGITECH PC Gaming Forums you'll find many complaints about this stick including the following:
- Buggy Software... they had to have at least *2* software updates to get one that wouldn't even crash, and then another to begin to attempt to fix some of the other problems, but creating new problems in the process
- Spiking Rudders... it seems that most people complaining of this are using Windows 7 64-bit, which is what I'm using. I have not had one single problem with the Rudders so far so I am unable to verify this as being a potential issue. It could be a physical problem with the Rudder POT that has since been corrected on the assembly line.. it could be a driver issue that has since been corrected with the 5.09 version release... or maybe I just got lucky with a good one... I just don't know
- Y Axis "Reversal Bug"... I can reproduce this and while it is mildly annoying it's not a deal-breaker. This is what they have been trying to correct with software and an updated stick Firmware. Some people are reporting success, others not.. and even more claim that the firmware update changed around the force feedback action (for the worse). I run the updated driver software (5.09) but HAVE NOT updated the firmware in my stick. When someone finds a way to safely revert it back to the old version if need be I'll give it a go, but for the time being I'll leave it as is.
- Buzzing noise from stick when not in use... I experience this myself... a slight touch to the stick will make it stop.. either that or unplugging its power source. This is reported to be fixed with the firmware update, but doesn't bother me enough to make that leap.
- Lack of detents on trim knobs... Yes it's mildly annoying... no there's really nothing that can be done about it without modifying the trim knobs physically.
- Lack of a utility to change the throttle button colors. They can be green, yellow, red, or black (off) but they never stray from green. There is no option to program this. Logitech claims it's up to each individual game to support this feature and simply put, nobody does yet. A few people have written third party software to do this but so far the only software that can actively be programmed to change these colors is FSX. It's really not a biggie.. I'd be too lazy to program it anyway.
- This is really my biggest issue with this stick. It may be correctable by enabling 'center spring' force but I don't want to do that because I love how the stick feels with it off. Anyway, my issue is within AH if I enable auto pilot and then take my hand off of the stick, the stick wants to 'flop down' because when the sensor doesn't see your hand on it, it disables the motors. When the stick flops down, my autopilot deactivates so to make it work I have to move the stick to center (without triggering the proximity sensor) and get it in just the perfect position so it balances in place. I'd like to see it so that it 'reports' centered values when your hand is off of the stick, regardless of the stick's actual position (or at least have an option to enable this).
Logitech is supposedly in the process of writing an all new, from the ground-up, 6.0 software, driver, and firmware package for this stick to address many of the customer complaints about this stick. They stopped working on it for several months to create the 5.09 version as a stop-gap update to make some people less angry, but it seems a lot of people are more disappointed in the 5.09 than were angry previously. All I can hope for is that the 6.0 software is a HUGE improvement, but they don't get in any hurry over there.. I wouldn't expect it to be released for at least another six months.
Even with its issues, I really do like this stick. It is many times more precise than my X52 ever was and it feels many times more sturdy as well.. well except for the throttle which feels a tad on the 'cheap' side, but works great! My gunnery skills have increased noticeably as well, with my fighter rank dropping from about 2400 to under 1100 (bringing my overall rank down to just over 200). Not that I especially care about score, but it feels good to see an improvement! It has given me a new factor in immersion, allowing me to fly a plane by feel, as well as sight and sound.. and it seems as if I can push it just that much more because you can feel it when a wing starts to stall, etc. It's actually very impressive.
Like I said in the beginning of this novel though... For $200 I was willing to take a chance.. for $300.. there's no way. For $250.. I'd do some serious thinking about it. Having used this stick for a couple of weeks now, yeah I'd maybe go $250.. but going in sight-unseen... no probably not.
If you are willing to take that chance though, I am willing to recommend it.
