Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Flight Stick for Flight Simulation, Official Replica of the U.S Air Force A-10C Aircraft (Compatible with PC)

This Stick is basically the best Flight sim stick money can buy. The feel of this stick screams quality and it really does add to the realism. For those of you who don't know, this stick is a exact Replica of the F-16 Stick, and by extension, the A-10C Warthog Stick.A little history:The A-10A Warthog used a different stick back in the 70's thru 90's. In the late 90's and early 2000's, The USAF upgraded a bunch of their A-10 Planes with a new cockpit, computer system, guidance system, and stick system. They added the F-16's stick, because pilots preferred it due to it's easy to reach controls. After everything was upgraded, the A-10A, was changed to the A-10C. This allowed them to drop GPS guidance bombs, and calculate projectile logistics while the aircraft was accelerating or moving. I learned a lot of this stuff from DCS World's, A-10C Simulator. This is a officially license designed from the USAF, which means for every stick sold, Thrustmaster has to pay the USAF a royalty fee. Feel good about supporting our military when you buy this stick.This Thrustmaster Replica stick, is so good, it has been used in tons of movies as a official prop. The newest movie to use this stick, is "The Martian"About the Stick:Quality: a lot of reviewers are mentioning the stick grip itself, is made of plastic. But you can't tell. When you grip this stick, you will think it's metal. It is cold to the touch. It does not move, or creak when you grip it. The "feel" of the movement of the stick is amazing. It provides consistent resistance on the full range of axis. Some reviewers are mentioning sticktion in some of the early units. I have revision 3, and have not noticed any sticktion at all. I believe thrustmaster has changed the grease, and upgraded the ball joint. The buttons are slightly stiff, but real looking. They are not overly stiff, but they are just right.The Throttle is a amazing piece of engineering and is a testimate to thrustmaster's design team. All of the flip switches are superb in quality, even beating audio equipment switches. The LED lights on the throttle are a nice touch, but i wish they were interactive. There are more buttons than you could ever use, however it does lack a rotary dial. Some space sim fans will want a rotary dial, or a full analog joystick. This throttle does not have that. It has a little mouse nub (similar to IBM thinkpad laptops), that you use with your ring finger, but its no where near the function of a analog stick or rotary dial.The throttle is amazing, but i'm more into space simulators like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, No-Man's Sky etc..My Dream Setup would be the Warthog stick, with a Saitek Throttle which has a trackball. The new star citizen saitek sticks coming out later this year, will have a track ball on them. But there is no way Saitek's actual stick, will be even close in feel and quality to this warthog stick.You can play Space Simulator games fine with the full Warthog setup, but the way Star Citizen works, is you have free floating gimbled weapons, which do not "auto-lock" like they do in Elite Dangerous. So aiming is a bit of a challenge because your effectively trying to hit a 2mm square pip (target), on a 24" monitor. Sticks are not the best a precision aiming, thats why mouse and keyboard users will have more precision. But with a stick, you will be able to out-maneuver them every time. You can pull off the most complex maneuvers, that a keyboard and mouse simply cannot.The Thrustmaster Warthog is built in a way, that it is easily disassembled if you should ever want to. Some users replace the grease with a thicker variety. Being able to repair, and mod this stick, justifies the asking price. There are a ton of mods, exensions and how-to video's on modifying this stick. It is a very popular stick, my particular unit is number 32,678, so that means they have sold over 32,000 of these sticks. And that's saying a lot because it's so expensive. Bottom Line: This stick will last you your whole life, because your able to repair and get parts for it.I am not going to go over the software much, because other reviewers have touched on it quite a bit. Some people don't use the software at all, but i think that's a mistake. Thrustmaster's software is the most powerful control software to ever be written. You can do anything with this stick, it has it's own full programming language similar to C#. This puts competitors software to shame.I'll end this long review with a glowing recommendation and i will also mention that Thrustmaster support is A+ should you ever need it. I really wish Cloud Imperium Games (Makers of Star Citizen) would have worked with Thrustmaster instead of Saitek, because there sticks are so much better. Really, almost everything thrustmaster makes, is the best money can buy, in that price bracket.Stop reading and throw your money at the screen.Thanks for reading.

(Update 1 year later: My Master Exterior Light Switch has failed. That's the pinky switch on the throttle, sticking out of the left side. Be careful with that switch, as it is the most vulnerable to snags and such. I'm not sure if mine broke or failed due to a defect, but all other switches are holding up just fine.)((Update 2: I contacted Thrustmaster about my issue. I initially just wanted to know the specifications for the switch so I could replace it, but they offered to send me one for free! It took a bit of back and forth (TM is a French company I guess?) and even though my warantee had ended during our back and forth, they decided to honor it, which is great. The new switch was easy to install (soldering and hot-glue required) and all is fine again! Their customer service is a bit rough around the edges, but they did the right thing in my case, so this product maintains its five start status.))Just about everything has already been covered, but I wanted to add another glowing review just in case you're still on the fence about this stick.Construction:This thing is made of metal and very high grade plastics, and it is metal where it counts. The joystick casing, locking ring and sensor base are all metal, while the buttons are plastic as they would be on the real deal. The meticulously designed switches are solid, and provide enough tactile feedback to resonate through gloves (as the real stick was designed). The throttle base is weighted, and feels extremely solid. I've used real military equipment that wasn't half as sturdy as this.Accuracy and sensors:This stick uses a proper hall sensor, not the low quality kind you'll find in an X-52 (which must be modified in order to be useful). I find that not only does the stick center flawlessly, but it is extremely responsive to slight movements, while being stiff enough to resist accidental input. The only issue I've had so far is with the slider, which I will go into below.Switches and extras:This HOTAS includes a replica of the A-10C's throttle quadrant, complete with APU switch, engine flow switches, and even your Autopilot mini-quadrent. Most importantly, the throttle has all the hats and switches you need to use a HOTAS as intended, with your hands on the throttle and stick. It is a short reach from the throttle to the accurately modeled flaps switch. I have mapped gear up and down to the L/G WRN silence (normally used to silence the caution alarm that plays while your gear is in transition) allowing me to take off and land without ever taking my hands off the HOTAS.Use in DCS A-10:While you don't NEED to have this stick to play DCS A-10C, it makes the game many times better. Once you learn what each hat is named, you can easily follow the tutorial or another pilots instructions to do just about anything. It really does make learning the game easier, and playing it a lot more fun.Use with other sims:The A-10s upgrade to C included updating the joystick with one nearly straight out of the F-16. This means you have a somewhat standardized stick arrangement that will work with other jets. Any twin engine aircraft can be flown easily, and you can link the throttles if you're flying a single engine. The included software will allow you to map the switches to whatever controls you want, even if your sim doesn't recognize them natively. The one thing to be aware of is that some games do not recognize more than one joystick at a time, and the throttle and joystick of this HOTAS are each their own 'joystick' according to windows. This means you'll need to use special software to tie them both into one emulated joystick.The Slider:My biggest complaint is relatively small. There is a linear slider on the throttle. I have it assigned as zoom view. Because it is analogue, or due to a lack of filtering, this slider sends a signal that varies ever so slightly. When it is assigned to zoom your view, this means that anything other than fully zoomed out, fully zoomed in or 50% has a slight in and out shake to it. I had this same issue with my X52 and I was hoping this HOTAS wouldn't do it too.Pros:-Incredible build quality-Shockingly accurate-Very accurate to its namesake-Compatible with previous Thrustmaster systemsCons:-Slider sends shaky signal, making it useless for zoom view-Throttle and Joystick are on their own USB port and read as two input devicesI do not consider the price to be a con, as you will see that the build quality accounts for what you pay. You're not paying for the name, you're paying for the engineering. I highly recommend this HOTAS.