I bought an X52 Pro and have a love/hate relationship with it.
- On the one hand, I love it's ergonomics: the buttons are abundant and well placed, the hand sits compfortably on this support, the throttle caters my hand laying lightweighted on it.
I love this lever for the little finger, which allows me to exit any menu instantly and the two staged fire button.
- On the other hand, all the mourning about the poor built quality seems justified. After only a few month of playing, my throttle had a complete break down. Claiming my warranty was no problem, but my faith in the HOTAS was damaged severely. Will the new HOTAS last longer? Sending-in the equipment again and again will only be a limited solution, as the warranty lasts two years. What will happen when it expires?
- Another big downside of this HOTAS is the fact that throttle and joystick are directly wired. This means that, if one of both has issues in the future, it is not possible to replace only one item.
One reason why I've bought the X52 Pro was indeed its twist function. I was used to it due to my previous joystick (Saitek 'Evo') and didn't want to miss it.
However, playing ED intensely over the course of the month, I discovered quite a large downside of this feature (which is, at least in my imagination, the main reason why something like this is not used in real airplanes): On the long run, twisting the stick is very stressful for the wrist! This did indeed reach an extent that let me avoid this movement if not explicitely necessary.
This is the main reason why I ordered the 'MFG crosswind' padle quite a while ago and eagerly await its shipping soon(TM).
Additionally, if my X52 Pro will finally fail me again after the warranty expired, I will be able to switch to a CH setup smoothly.