Well, I have a PFC yoke I purchased for a bit less than $400. Almost all metal construction, including heavy duty (and just plain heavy) internal parts that add very reaslitic resistance. I don't see how you can replicate that in plastic. For the record, I had a CH yoke for a few days and sent it back. I found the action very jerky and uneven - far less smooth in all axis than the PFC yoke. I found it far more difficult to control the planes than with the Saitek stick it replaced. So you can hold the lectures about plastic vs. metal. For about $150 more, I got a far, far superior product than the pole with the slinky spring from CH products - at least in my opinion. I have no doubt that the yoke will be attached to my system far longer than, say, my current graphics card, and it didnt' cost a whole lot more than that. In fact the yoke will probably be around far longer than the whole system. Not bad for $400, given that everything else in this sim has a much shorter half-life. I also have the Pro CH pedals, so I am not just going after CH from appearances only. They are OK, but just OK. Nothing really great. The pots inside show wildly fluctuting readings after less than two years of use - and I have taken them apart to clean them out. They are difficult to keep centered even using FSUIPC to define the dead zones. They also offer very little resistance and it is hard to do anything other than very rough rudder inputs. I give them about a 6 out of 10.With regards to warranties, I liken it to cars. Really well made cars come with shorter warranties - Hondas, Subarus and Toyotas to name a few. In the end, they run well and without major problems far beyond their warranty date, and end up costing their owners no more than less-well-made cars with much longer warranties. Looking at the construction of my PFC yoke, I have absolutely no fears that anything will be wearing out in the near future. I spend money on goood controls for the simple reason that they make flying far more enjoyable - it also makes flying on computers a whole lot easier because you have some real precision that you don't get with 95% of the joysticks and other products on the market. Those are my priorities - I can't see spending $2,000 on a computer then slapping on some cheap controls. Don't care how good it looks - it's going to be far less enjoyable to fly. Just my opinion.

Yes, I purchased the three lever yoke about three days after it was released and sent it back three days later. I found the action rough and uneven through both the X and Y axis - very hard to control with any precision. I also have CH pedals which are ok - nothing great, but ok. Same problems with lack of precision, even after cleanings, repeated calibrations and endless fiddling with FSUIPC. Also, the pot is probably not a very high quality one. Wildly variable readings, spikes and difficulty keeping it centered. I now own a PFC yoke I paid about $400 for. Built like a tank and about as heavy as one. The heavy duty springs and almost exclusively all metal construction give the yoke a far smoother and heavier feel. It is far more precise than the CH yoke ever was and gives solid, predictable resistance. With regards to warranties, I liken it to cars. Many of the better made cars on the market come with relatively short warranties - i.e. Honda, Subary and Toyota. This is because they don't tend to break much even after the warranty expires. In the long term, cost of ownerhsip is the same, if not lower than for many models with longer warranties.I take the same view with this yoke. First, it is built like a tank. Second, there isn't much to break inside anyways. Third, I've visited the plant - good people, hand-made, jobs for folks in Sacramento. No regrets whatsoever. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this yoke was still going strong five to ten years down the road. Compared with everything else I buy in this hobby, that's a pretty good investment.

Your point are all well taken. I have no problems with your statements about the over-all quality of the PFC Yoke versus CH.The CH products are aimed at the low to mid-range spending consumer.And yes, in some cases metal containers can give a more realistic impression of the real thing unless the real thing is in-fact plastic.But as one who had concepted and installed thermoplastic molding facilities all over the world, for a wide variety of products including high-end autombiles, I must say my customers look to build out of plastic 100% of the time if at all possible, no matter who they are. Why is that? First the process allows their Engineers to build functionally better and more attractive products at a lower cost. The manufacturing process of these parts is so much simpler than aluminum die casting (and the like), that complex designs can be incorporated into these parts that can not be done with other processes. Then the glass-fillers "Engineering Grade" materials are much less apt to break, especially under shock and impact if the right material is used, and used properly.All I'm saying is the throttle is not of poor quality because of the fact that it's made of plastic. It's because of the many other things you descripe in you subsequent message.I would agree, that this new throttle does give off the appearance of "cheap plastic", but that's from it rather poor outside design appearance. I don't believe it's the plastic itself that renders it that way and I've never experienced the plastic part on a CH product that has broken. Regards...Bob (Lecanto, Fl)AMD, Athlon XP, 1800+MSI, K7T266 XP ProPC 2100 DDR, 1024 MBXP, Home Edition Elsa GLadiac 920, GF3/64Mb andPNY, Verto nVidia TNT 2-M64/32WD, 100 MB, 7200, Ultra 100Sound Blaster, Audigy MP3+CH Prod, VPP Yoke - Sound CardCH Prod, Pedals - Sound Card

>Well, I have a PFC yoke I purchased for a bit less than $400.Good for you. Ebay ? The new PFC yoke is $495.Michael J.