CH f-16 Fighter Stick vs. Cougar HOTAS

[Horn]

I have been following the release of the Cougar with interest and am considering a replacement.

I've been using CH products f16/Pro Throttle/Pro Pedals for 5 years after starting out with a TM stick that lasted almost two whole weeks before the potentiometer thingies went tango uniform. The CH stick is routed into the system via a dedicated gamecard.

Prices are comparable--the set up I use was about $335.00, the Cougar w/o pedals is around $275.00. The buttons and hats on the stick are exactly the same for both sticks. The throttles are quite different, tho--The cougar's seem to have more stuff on 'em--I don't even use all of the buttons on the Pro Throttle now so this is OK.

The CH requires a gentle touch--the springs are not the stiff type that the Cougar sports. The Pro Pedals are great and I understand that I can use my analog pedals with the Cougar. Programming the CH is easy and flexible (on a 98SE system).

So the question is, is the Cougar worth it? I know lots of folks use CH here--anyone done a side by side comparison?

tia!

dh

[vatiAH]

Horn,

    My CH throttle just developed a bad cable so I to have been looking at the Cougar.   I have had my CH gear for roughly 5 years also and this is the first real problem with it.  Before I bought the CH equipment I used TM FLCS, WCS MK II, and RCS.  I used these till I broke the Stick in half!!!  ( Shaft Broke)   I was going to just buy new TM gear but found out they were not making the high end stuff anymore,   Thats when I moved to CH.   I have to say that CH is very good quality equipment and the customer support has also been great.     I ordered all new CH USB gear and should have it today.  The reasons I stayed with CH are :

Customer Support,
Known Quality of CH gear
NO Comparable rudders for Couger
lighter spring tension ( Don't want to arm wrestle stick)

I'm not telling you or anyone else NOT to buy a Couger, I'm just giving you the reasons I decided not to.

Vati66

[Brent Stevens]

Couger has some of the stiffest springs I ever used. Too stiff IMO. I feel like a punk saying that knowing Flossy isn't having any problems with it If you can remember how stiff Argos had his setup you'd have a good idea.
I'm like you with the buttons, I really don't use all the buttons this stick has to offer. The programing you can do with this stick is mind boggling. But you can also program it like a regular stick too. Its very smooth too, no jitter at all which is a personal peeve of mine.
All in all, awesome piece of hardware.

[Revvin]

I've owned a few TM sticks and had a CH Force FX/Pro Throttle setup as well as a Saitek X36 and the Cougar beats thems all hands down no contest whatsoever.

The springs feel light to me, they are 18lb and you can move the stick with just your thumb without much effort, remember the heavy weight of the handle (and it is heavy!)  makes it feel lighter than the springs suggest. You can use your analogue pedals and plug them straight into the Cougar not only that but you will be able to program the axis on the rudders through the Cougar software.

The build quality on this stick is quite amazing. The all metal construction gives this stick a good solid feel. The buttons, stick, hatswitches and base are all metal. The buttons have a very good feel to them, its hard to describe but it does'nt feel at all like any other stick I've had. Even the old TM, CH or Saitek sticks were either too 'clicky' or too 'mushy' feeling. The hat switches on the Cougar...well they just feel 'right'.

Programming is a breeze. I recommend this stick to others and one guy was a bit put off when seeing a profile I had done but once I showed him the basics he was up and away doing his own profiles. I did'nt pick up the manual for almost a week and only did so to find out more about the advanced programming available. The help wizards are straight forward and idiot proof and using them will see you with a working profile in no time at all. While it may not be as easy as say the point and click style of Speedkeys or Saitek's SGE software it's easy enough while also giving you much much more programmability over any of the above sticks. You can map hat switches to axis (there are 10 available) you can program thestick and dramatically alter the way each axis behaves so for instance you could press a button on your stick to set you up in landing mode or refueling mode (if you like Falcon 4.0 for instance) and upon pressign that button the axis of the stick either become more responsive or less. The mousestickcan be used very effectively as a mouse or a mini joystick, it feels very much like one of those mini sticks on an analogue gamepad.

As for quality, wel laround 10 years ago I bought my first TM stick and its still going strong today, my other TM stick lasted me 6 years so combined with the all metal construction I'm not planning on buying another stick for some time. Support is very good through TM's own forums and the Cougar design team hang out on Cougar World which is run by the guy that wrote the Cougar software so help is on hand and very quick.

So incase you wondered YES I do recommend the Cougar