In 22 years I have never received a defective CH products product.
I started with the Gameport Fighterstick Pro Throttle and Pro Pedals. I switched to USB gear when Mi¢ro$not Disable programing through the ps/ps2 Keyboard port in 2k/xp. It was later fixed but by that point I already switched to USB which was an eventuality any way as most systems use a built in sound card and no one makes a sound card with a gameport on it any more and no one makes a mother board with an ISA slot so No Gameport cards will work any more any way. Basically game port went the way of the dodo bird as it should have.
I eventually plan on upgrading to Virpil Gear but that may take awhile ..... a long while due to shortages and demand, which is sad because I have the Fundage for the upgrade.
All of my current CH gear is old enough to vote and has been showing wear. My toe brakes had a bad cable that kept breaking, My pov hat on my stick doesn't always work in the down position and my throttle has a 4 way hat button that feels off or loose.
So I have replaced my Hotas set (Fighter Stick, Pro Throt, pro Pedals) with new CH gear. I still have my Ch Yoke and throttle quadrant but they aren't that old. I plan on keeping my old Hotas as spare parts (Since CH no longer sells parts) for the new gear and eventually I will pass it all down to my youngest son (When I get Vipil, VKB, and/or Winwing gear - hopefully before I die.)
While CH products WAS a US based Company that made their stuff here in the US several years ago, back in 2008, they where purchased/acquired by APEM and have pretty much made CH a neglected red headed step child every since.
I don't think APEM, Inc gives half a lick about gamers let alone flight sim enthusiast. They haven't made a single improvement to CH's product line, let alone pushed any new designs. The stuff they sell now is the same stuff CH was selling back in 2008 most of which has been in production since around 2000ish. They stopped selling replacement parts in 2010 and dropped support of their control manager software around 2016. The control manager software is required to get the most out of your HOTAS like layered profiles and shift function. My original PRE-APEM CH gear was made and assembled in the US now the new gear reads "Assembled in Mexico" which is better than China or so I thought.
To bring this story to it's conclusion the 8 Way POV HAT on my new CH Pro Throttle is installed sideways .... as in Up is left, Left is down, etc. This shouldn't a big of a deal as I would just have to remap the POV HAT but that means I would have to remap EVERYTHING all my Control manager maps and even my mappings in games like DCS where I do the mapping through the game instead of macro mapping through Control Manager. Since CH has pretty much completely abandoned their customers I'm just going to send this one back to amazon for a replacement.
I honestly don't expect the new gear to last as long as the old gear even with keeping the old gear for spare parts.
I cannot in good conscious recommend CH products gear unless you are already invested in the CH ecosystem and in all honesty your probably going to buy better gear later any way as I don't see CH being in business much longer and APEM couldn't care less about gamers or flight sim enthusiast. As is the support just isn't there any more and hasn't been for some time (2008).
