I bought a Thrustmaster T-16000M after reading Bzman and Redbull's post from a google search. t replaced a sidewinder II. After a week of use, I really like this stick. The very firm spring for centering and smooth Hall-effect sensors helps with those trigger pull jitters. The advanced scaling is less critical with the sticks smooth action from the Hall-effect sensors
I use the ratio of kills vs assist as a good guide to my shooting accuracy. Kills have gone up and assist down since installing the T16000.
Lots of buttons. The ones on the right are allocated to lower priority functions like door-open and tail-hook since for a right hand'er, they are hard to reach. Although you can't see it in web pictures of the T16000, there is a height difference between the front three buttons and back three buttons on each side of the base so you can feel your selection without looking.
The handle feels good to the hand although it is quite large. I like the protruding, pivoting gun trigger. As Bizman posted, it just feels right to the hand.
The blaring green light, well, you either get use to it or you tape over it. It would have been nice if Thrustmaster would have made that an option in the stick setup software.
The T16000 is well worth a look if a new joystick is in your future.