I have a pretty large Hotas collection, going back to the first TM stuff I got back in the 386 PC days. CH is still a favorite of mine, I have a pre 08 set of USB Fighterstick/throttle/peds still going strong. I do have some of the post 08 gear too, and it's hit or miss, the internals can look like a drunk person assembled/soldered/etc them, or sometimes it's decent. I still find the smooth/ease of movement of the Fighterstick to be unmatched for games like AH where you're yanking the stick around a LOT.
TM Warthog/Cougar - it's still decent gear, but beware of the sticktion/wear issues of the Warthog stick, google it and you'll get the phone book, but it's relatively simple and cheap to deal with. I still love the metal F16/A10 stick, and frequently use that grip on a Virpil Wrbrd base (best bang/$ out there IMO).
One option I haven't gotten around to collecting yet is the products from RealSimulator. That's more about a bad experience I had dealing with their support than their products, which work well from what I've read. Apparently their grips are garbage for the $ though, so if you go that route probably stick to their bases, and add a TM grip/whatever instead of their cheaply made in house grips.
I do agree with Mayhem in terms of a frankenHotas setup - VKB's Gunfighter is the best desktop stick available IMO, but a narrow margin over the Wrbrd/CM2/3 from Virpil. Virpil's throttle(s) are without competitor really, I have all 3 versions of their throttle, all are good to go. edit - to be fair WinWing also has throttles available now, and I have one of their F16 ones coming to use in place of the Cougar one I have for my F16 sim setup. I've read a lot of QA complaints with Winwing, support issues in terms of getting into contact with them regularly as well, but that's all just forum posts, I have no personal experience with them yet.
Pedals, I find myself using the VKB pedals more often than the others I have (Virpil x2, Slaw x2, MFG, CH, Saitek, TM), and they are by far the least expensive option. Virpil came out a couple years ago with a similar set to the VKB with clutches, but I still prefer the VKB ones. Very precise due to the motion being a bit more of a fine motor skill from the ankle as opposed to a more gross motor skill motion from the knee/leg.
One thing I can't recommend enough is to check the used sections on various sim/gaming forums, as well as whatever "big" sales web apps there are in your area. Using FB Marketplace, kijiji.ca (Canada), as well as 1/2 dozen gaming sites (also Ebay, forgot about that, but generally it sucks) - I pick off great deals on used hotas all the time. I've found brand new CH USB Fighterstick/Throttle so cheap that it cost me more in shipping than it did to buy them (IIRC it was around 40 or 50$ CDN total, so like 3 dollars USD/real money). I recently added a like new Saitek x65F hotas for $100, and they are very tough to find in good/working order nowadays.
