Logitech sticks are normally of fair to low qaulity. They're cheap and will get you up and going for a while. I had one ages and ages ago (10 years or so), and it was the worst stick i ever owned. I bought it to replace my one of my old saitek cyborg (game port). The reason i got it was i couldnt find any cyborgs. I think i went through 3 cyborgs in 2 years, IIRC. I went through the logi in 3 months. Well i quickly figured that since my joystick bill was running fairly high, and they didnt have the features i needed and their was no gaurentee that i would be an equivalent replacement and the were totally non-repairable, i decided to spend some extra on getting some high-qaulity kit. After researching, the choice was clear: CH products. I figured that i enjoy the game enough and will spend enough time in it to justify getting something more serious. The only CH stick i've replaced was my old analog combat stick to replace it with a USB fighterstick. It was only replaced because i needed USB, and it had more buttons, not because it had failed or anything - it was/is still as strong as an ox. I have all CH gear (including a 9 year old pair of gameport CH pedals on a USB adapter still working factory fresh). Best money i ever spent.
I guess to cut a long story short, if you are sure you are commited to this game/flight sims then getting CH gear is a no-brainer. If your still not sure, then saitek is a good intermediate position (saitek are getting lots better than they used to be too). If your starting out and just need a cheap stick to get flying for your two-weeker, then logi is fine for your first few months and cheap.
As for learning time on the new stick. Thats a real pain, and really depressing when you seem to go completely backwards and become fodder for a few months till you get your brain/muscles dialed into it. Its very tempting to go back to your old stick (if you can) because you know you will do immediately better with it. But there's two flaws with that: 1, you are making more dificult for yourself in the long-run. 2, better to do it sooner than later, as at some point the old stick will fail, and you'll need to do it anyway/again. There's only one way - through yourself in the deep end, and eventually you will come out the other side, and be much better for it.
as for stick set up and trim, try these links:
http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/controllers/controllers.htmhttp://trainers.hitechcreations.com/views/views.htmhttp://trainers.hitechcreations.com/trim/trim.htmheres something i wrote about hardware, but down the bottom is a bit about sticks and mappings including how i map mine:
http://www.my2cents.co.nz/AKUAG/TheVault_Files/HarwareSuggestions.aspx
