In any case,  get a joystick with contactless Hall effect sensors, no potentiometer. More expensive but way more reliable on the long run.

I use the TM Warthog which besides being heavy as others have said, is a bit stiff too which has the enormous advantage to force you to trim if your do not want cramps  😄 !

hmm, thanks for the tip. I have not found anything wrong with my TM WH gimbals. They are superior than my CH Flightstick Pro. I see the Virpil base is about $350 which is very steep price. Maybe someday for me 🙂

The Virpil WarBRD base is 189,95€.

I've owned the T16000m, the Warthog, the CH Pro fighterstick and the VKB Nxt Premium.

 

There is absolutely no comparison. The VKB Nxt premium is in an entirely different league - and this includes with the Warthog. There is simply no comparison between the rest and the NXT in the price range. 

On 12/14/2021 at 4:10 PM, somiller said:

Consider buying a used MS Sidewinder 2 on ebay, they're still around.

They are pretty reliable things.

The biggest issue with FFB2 that have not been used for a while is the rubber grip gets "tacky" if they are stored too long, but for some reason after a few hours normal use in game the stickiness and  that tacky feel just goes away.  The optical sensors and FFB motors seem very reliable.  Sometimes press buttons have issues but that is rare.

For a budget stick I really like the Thrustmaster T16000M.

It was a lot cheaper than a NXT or Virpil, at least when I bought mine, but that was before the current supply-chain unpleasantness.

For a budget stick I really like the Thrustmaster T16000M.

It was a lot cheaper than a NXT or Virpil, at least when I bought mine, but that was before the current supply-chain unpleasantness.

I went straight to VKB gunfighter (with SCG-L for captain side operation) from T16000M.

The cam-roller mechanism is almost a miniature version of what a real 737 use for control feeling.That makes a lot difference compare the friction plastic you found on T16K or even worth - the saitek one.

The problem with any surface friction is the static resistance will be higher than moving friction, so you'll need higher force to overcome it to get the stick move, but then the force will decrease, makes it much harder to make fine adjustment.

Well, the gunfighter's damping system still use friction plastic, so I basically run it with no damping at all.

Another problem with VKB is the electronics are very sensitive, and the wires are somewhat loose, you can see one pair of wire is just flying around the sharp conner of metal and  moves around when you moving the stick....from other's advice I have taped that flying wire from day one and still I do have loose connection about once a year, luckily it's easy to fix with some more tape at the end of connector.....also. I had one just put too much tension on one screw and it screwed up the gap between hall sensor and makes the output very unreliable, but this also easy to fix by finding the right tension with few try...

So I ended up ordering a Thrustmaster T16000M stick. But today, while browsing around in a used equipment forum I found someone selling a MS Sidewinder FFB2 that they claim is in perfect condition; so for grins I bought it.

Which one do you think I will like more?

On 12/14/2021 at 7:04 PM, dogmanbird said:

 

 

 

plus it apparently doesn't have a firmware deadzone, which is a great thing if you'd like to modify it for heli use.

my mistake - apparently the y-axis deadzone can't be removed completely