CH Products Fighterstick and Pro Throttle vs Saitek X52
I am writing this post because their might be some people out there who at some point, like me, find themselves owning an X-52 but wanting a new HOTAS.
Right now I have a CH Products Fighterstick and their Pro Throttle and I must say this is definitely the best HOTAS setup I have had so far.
I used to fly with an X52 and an X32 before that and these are fine sticks if you want a HOTAS for under 200 euros.
However Saitek is not really known for their production quality and in my case they only lasted a few years before they started to break down and had to be replaced. Centering became sloppy, fine controls around the center became more difficult, the mouse stick stopped working quickly and never had much precision to begin with. After about 6 months of not using it the plastic started to degrade and become sticky.
For me one thing that's both a good and a bad thing about the Saitek sticks is the twist rudder. It's great because you don't need rudder pedals, keeping the cost down and for me bolting rudder pedals down into my living room floor wasn't an option (they move around a lot you know).
The bad thing I found is that twisting the stick makes it hard to maintain fine control on the x- and y-axis when lining up your shots simply because your hand rotates around your wrist, not the center of the stick. (pedals ARE better...)
I decided to go for CH products stick and throttle (~300 euros) because they are more durable, I expect these to last a long time becoming the cheaper option over time.
The other great thing is that the Pro Throttle comes with a very good analogue thumb stick and for me it is perfect for rudder/yaw control. This way I have better control over pitch and roll AND I don't need separate rudder pedals, the thumb stick is brilliant for that.
Some drawbacks: The Pro throttle is a slider and because of that can sometimes slide on your desk, Saitek's rotating throttles don't have this problem.
The Fighterstick is quite large if you have small hands. Mine are average and it works fine, though I do have to move my hand up to press button 2.
The Fighterstick has two centering springs and this makes the axis transition very pronounced, however I found this not to be a problem in E : D since the ships behave like aircraft and roll and pitch are two very different things. This could be problematic in other games if you want to bind yaw and pitch to your X- and Y-axis (turrets in space).
Below is the profile I am currently using, it has had a few months of fine tuning and works pretty well.
I hope this post is of use to some of you.
CH Products Fighterstick and Pro Throttle controls
?? I will be probably also force to clean the metal "ring" under the joystick but I'm not sure how to properly do this.
