I donīt get what all the hoopla is about.
I have no experience with CH stuff, but I bought a warthog and I was very disappointed to say the least. Sure, the hall effect and yada yada yada... But the thing has so much sticktion that I consider it unusable. I got it, unpacked it, plugged it in, tried off line and wondered what the hell was wrong with it. I have taken it apart about 20 times to try to get the thing to work properly. Thrustmaster (gracefully) even sent me a complete new "gimbal" set to try on for size. Made no difference. I have taken out the inner most ball in the joint (it is there to prevent Z-axis twisting of the grip) which adds massive amounts of friction to the stick. Still unacceptable. I have tried the slippriest lubricant known to man. No joy. Tried polishing the surfaces, and it got better but not good enough. It is a poor design. No way around it. Nice and flashy on the outside, all the internals are cheap and inadequate for a stick that set me back 450 bucks. Mine has been just a heap junk on my desk for the last couple of months. I do not even play anymore because of this. Havnīt bothered to dig out the X-65 (havnīt got much praise for that stick either).
My question would have to be, how hard can it be to build a decent gimbal mechanism? I could build one out ot cardboard that had a better feel to it than this thing (but donīt get any ideas, Thrustmaster), give me some particle board, a couple of ball bearings and... well you get my drift.
The software is cumbersome. One has to write up ones own code if one wants to configure any thing other than what the in game settings can do. That is unfortunate because the toggle switches donīt really make sense in game. Flick the switch the gear goes up, flick it the other way gear goes down. This turns the other way if you donīt start the game with all the switches in the right positions. Annoying but hey, itīs a "replica".
I do not recommend it for someone who wants realism, which is ironic because, again itīs a "replica". Sure does not feel anything like the real thing if you ask me.
I have a challenge for anyone who has one, and if you get different results than me maybe there really is something wrong with mine. Try this:
Move the stick about half way from center in x and y axis, so like 45 degrees to the side, any direction and hold it there. Now try to make an as small as possible input (move the stick). You will find that there is an enormous amount of "break free" sticktion or friction or what ever you want to call it when ever you want to make a small input from this intermediate position. That is the worst possible thing for good feel and measured precise flying.
The stick in my mind is not worth any where near what they are asking for it. Software is useless, so is the stick, the throttle has nothing but useless toggle switches and so on. I have yet to try anything from CH, but I find it hard to believe that their stuff could be worse than this. And donīt forget the 200 bucks you can spend on beer.
If you are looking for fulfillment in life look elsewhere.