So, first I want to thank everyone who responded to my other thread and participated in the poll. You gave me a ton of really great data to make my decision.

I have been playing with a T-Flight HOTAS X for over a month now and I am really kind of fond of it. I love the feel of it. I enjoy the button layout and I really like the rocker on the throttle for lateral strafing. It's a little short on buttons but it gets all of the important stuff done and I even have a button or two left over. When I first got it I didn't really realize how bad the center dead zone it was, but as I got better at the game I began to realize I was fighting against the inaccuracy of the stick the entire time and that it might be time for an upgrade. I thought the best course of action would be to crowd source the HOTAS crew on this forum and according to the data the clear winner for the money is the CH Flightstick with a 100% satisfaction rating (at this time of writing this). A feat that even the Warthog couldn't quite match. I promptly ordered one and spent the day playing with it.

I am sad to report that I will be returning this stick tomorrow. I feel really bad about it because ironically I'm the one who is going to ruin it's perfect satisfaction rating and I have to admit it's a really awesome stick. Here are my thoughts.

THE GOOD

The build quality is solid. You can tell this stick will last years and years and that's a really great thing. No complaints as far as that goes. The best thing about the CH is that it is accurate as hell. I mean, I played around in some Squadron Match today and I was just lighting people up at long range. Consistently. Effortlessly. Even with the changes in v0.9 I can honestly say that I am more accurate with this stick today, than I was in v0.8 with the T-Flight. It's tremendous in that regard and that should be enough for me to keep it. But it isn't.

THE BAD

First, let me get the sad superficial truth out of the way. This thing is a throwback to the 90's and not in a good way. I'm embarrassed to keep it out on my desk and that's saying a lot. I hate the way it looks, but that's not really all that important. What is important is the feel of it. And I can't stand the way it feels. I hate the grainy plastic. I hate the buttons. But most of all I hate that rocker mechanism that drives the X and Y axis. As Sick and Dying stated in the poll thread:

The stick is not spring based. I think one would call it axis based? Anyway with a spring stick you have pretty smooth movement in all directions, with the CH when moving it in a diagonal motion you hit a sort of 'bump' when the axis cross over each other. I don't notice it much but hear some people absolutely hate it. I have observed though that arm positioning can play a very large part in how much you feel that 'bump', too high or too low it can throw off your aim but when you have just right it's almost unnoticeable. The only thing I'm not really a fan of is the red missile button at the top left, it a bit hard to reach for me depending on how i hold the stick, and i have longer fingers.

So, I had a heads up about it before I ordered it but I didn't think my reaction would be so bad. For me, it's really immersion breaking. Every time I feel that "bump" I am reminded that I am playing this game with a funny joystick from 1992 and for me it's a total deal breaker. The whole apparatus feels floppy and lumpy and I have to move my hand too far to get to reach each corner. It's like playing with a broomstick in a square barrel. Further, I have become really accustomed to the twist axis on the T-Flight and I constantly try to twist the CH to roll only to be disappointed that it doesn't have this feature.

All in all this is a quality stick that anyone should be proud of. It's solidly built and it'll improve your game. I'd recommend it based on it's technical merits alone. I just can't get past my negative tactile response to it and so I have to say good bye. This leaves me in kind of a depressing situation. I really don't know where to go from here. I'd try an x55 but I hear so many bad things about the build quality I'm really not too optimistic about it. I'm a Logitech loyalist but the G940 is discontinued and kind of out of my price range anyway. The Warthog seems to be a real winner but again, I'd really like to avoid spending 600 bucks on another component after buying a TrackIR and an AMD R9 280 this month. Anyone got any suggestions? Anyone? Bueller?

I think maybe the best course of action is to just stick with the crappy T-Flight and see what CR and the gang manage to cook up with their Star Citizen Mystery Wonder Stick Pro. Maybe by playing for months on a really terrible joystick I'll inadvertently improve my game once I switch to a decent one. Anyway, sorry for being the one tool who hates this thing.

Edit: Changed the language in the title. It was placeholder and I forgot to change it.