My cougar starting getting weird, and having read so many posts about the pots, I was all set to take it apart, or send it in for service.
I called Thrustmaster one last time to get the address of where to send my stick, and a techie told me to try this first:
Unplug the stick,
Download latest drivers
Install Drivers
With stick unplugged, hold trigger down 30 seconds to reset it.
PLug stick back in, restart the stick, and recalibrate.
Presto!
Fixed. No soldering, Flux, Influx, outflux, flux capacitors....nothing.
So learn from my mistake.
Thanks againg to the great AH community for offering so much aid. One guy even offered to loan me a stick while mine was being fixed.
What a great bunch!