CH Products

Although we have the Pro Pedals from CH, we're going to focus on their sticks since we don't have anything to compare the pedals with.

CH Products has been around a long, long time - they were the primary competition for Thrustmaster back in the days of the flight simming golden age and they're still kicking today. Unlike Thrustmaster, which fell upon hard times and was consequently bought out by Guillemot, CH has remained independent and their product line hasn't seen any huge revamps.

This could and probably does explain why initial impressions of the CH FighterStick Pro and Pro Throttle USB were very tame. In comparison with the sleek (if overly bright) CH sticks, with their aluminum trim and sweat-absorbant padding, the CH combination is just plain. Plain plastic. Hard, black plastic, dotted with spots of equally hard grey and red plastic. Sex appeal, thy name is most certainly not FighterStick Pro.

In fact, most of our initial impressions of CH were disappointing compared to the X52, yet we came away using the CH items more. The X52 has an adjustable handrest, the CH stick doesn't, and being modeled on the actual F-16 stick, it requires mammoth hands to wield properly. If the CH stick is anywhere above elbow level, it is simply impossible for the average man to reach the top 8-way hat switch without triggering all the other hat switches in between. F-16 authenticity is great and all, but we're gamers, not fighter jocks (or gorillas). Though there may be a small subset of the gaming population who drink jet fuel, know the exact number of rivets on the leading edge of a Bf-109E-4 wing, and would probably tear their hair out if they had to fly a jet sim with anything but an F-16 style stick, we're rather certain that they do not form the majority of the market. No, the rest of us would be quite happy with an adjustable hand rest and a more ergonomic layout of the top of the stick, and perhaps a sweat-absorbant padding.

That said... I ended up buying a new desk so I can use the CH FighterStick Pro. It may be less comfortable than the X52, but it is much more responsive - and more importantly - predictable and linear. I got used to the X52's quirks in about a week of flying in various games. I knew to expect diminished inputs when crossing the X or Y axis, and that the point-of-view hat switch wasn't as sensitive when pushed to the upper-right corner. When I installed the CH FighterStick Pro, I just FLEW. There are no dead spots, no sensitive areas, no flakey hat switches. It just works and it does so correctly from the start. The FighterStick, like the X52, is light - perhaps a bit firmer than the X52 - but this doesn't present a problem for most people it seems, though many do prefer the 15-20lbs of force typical of a Cougar.