RLGaming.com

First off, the Cougar is without a doubt the most amazing HOTAS I've ever owned. In the past, I've only used the Wingman series from Logitech and were fine for years. When I saw the Cougar I knew I had to have one, along with TM Elite pedals. I've had this setup now for about 5 months. Total time with a new Cougar setup is around 150 hours. Still have the clear sticker on the front of the stick Adult owned and cared for etc, etc,....

Like many Cougar owners I've read about, I've started to get center play in the stick and have noticed some spiking. So I increase the deadband in my sims, etc, and it helps a bit. But now it's getting worse. I've also read about and emailed the good folks over at Frugalsworld who produce the mods that take care of these hardware issues. However, I'm not ready to buy any new hardware mods to make my Cougar perform like it should have out of the box. I'm definitely not impressed. Now before I get flamed, I know how many Cougar owners are passionate about their stuff. I love mine too, but it's unacceptable to me for hardware at this price to need an extra few hundred dollars in mods to be reliable.

So if any of you guys has CH stuff, please tell me about it. I'm looking for reliability, ease of setup, and programmability. At this point in my life I don't care if it doesn't look exactly like an F-16 or F-18. How would you rate the CH stuff? How are the rudder pedals? Thanks for your inputs, I really want the best setup I can get that will last more than 5 months.

CH F-16 Combat Stick here. A few less buttons than the pro version, but I have no complaints.

Some have commented on it's light spring tension and amount of "throw" for full deflection; but I've found that it allows for more precise inputs. It's a light stick, but with it's wide base and rubber feet, it doesn't move from my desk.

I'm on my 2nd Combat Stick, the first one died after 2 years of pulling too many G's and snapped a retainer on one of the springs. I called up CH Products, sent in my stick, and no questions asked, they sent me a brand new one.

I've considered going with the matching USB throttle; but the slider throttle on the stick works well for me.

hope that helps,

Alex

I use the Saitek X-45 HOTAS. Brilliant in my opinion. 4 hat switches 7 buttons. 2 slide switches and 2 rotary controls, all programable for 4 different modes giving you over 200 possible commands (probably a lot more)you can program in for each game (great for flight sims and FPS alike)

The throtle is great as is the stick all buttons are in good comfortable positons, programming takes gettting used to but very easy when you get the hang of it, it also has leds in cetain switches and it highlights which of the modes it's in, for example i have mode 1 for normal flight, mode 2 for A/A and mode 3 for A/G the fourth mode is a pinkie swich but it gives each button another programming posibility within each of the three modes which come to think of it will give you about a 1000 possible programming options not just 200.

The latest programming software works great with XP and solves all previous issues that the X-45 had with XP.

Nice movement in both stick and throttle, stick gets sticky after a month or 2 but this wears of with more use as it breaks itself in (not a serious problem they all do it and they all get over it). From what i've read about this HOTAS (and thats a lot) they last for years mine is a year old and have had no problems with it, except when i moved to XP from win 98 but as i mentioned the new software fixes any problems.

I would recommend it to anyone and would buy another in a snap when this one wears out, probably 2-3 years from now.

Not bad at all for just under $100 or £60 that i paid for it and a cougar costs over £300 here or $450-$500.

While rudder pedals and throttle would be nice, I've never considered than an absolute must. So I cannot comment on those items in particular. I used to use the logitech series myself but went out and dropped the 80 bucks on the sidewinder precision pro. That's right , piece o crap sidewinder that most folk hate. Well, I've had mine for four years now and only now is it starting to exhibit wear and tear. I must say that I have beaten the hell out of this stick, and yet it just keeps asking for more. So for the money, it may not be the most flashy or perhaps the most realistic, but I've got plenty of programmable buttons, a sliding throttle dial and rudder control swivel. I've won dog fight after dog fight with this stick and can't say enough about it. I would certainly buy another when it finally breaks.