Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Flightstick - High-Precision Joystick with H.E.A.R.T HallEffect AccuRate Technology for PC

Just the best Hotas you can buy, I keep seeing the price being refered to as one of the "cons" with this kit but believe me, you are getting a heck of a lot of HOTAS for your money. My last HOTAS was also a Thrustmaster, the F22pro with TQS throttle, cost way more than the Warthog and was all (very high quality) plastic. BUT that stick and throttle was in daily use for 23 years! I never needed to buy another setup, when gameports were abolished, I converted it to USB and I fully expect it to last another 23 years too if it wasn't for my need to replace it with the Warthog. Like many others I have fallen in love with the A10-C simulation by DCS, probably the most detailed and accurate sim outside of the commercial market (and probably better than most of them). The Warthog stick is detected by the sim and "just works". Must say I am not a fan of the red china hat switch top or the flap switch top, may need to get a chunkier set 3d printed but I'm not going top mark it down for that, it's still better than any of the competition. The feel of the stick is much lighter than I am used to, the F22 had springs from a Sherman Tank and this is a revelation, so much easier to control the ship with. Buttons are nicely placed and weighted and feel very professional, solid and smooth action. The throttles move smoothly and have adjustable damping, an off/idle detent and a switchable afterburner detent (allen key supplied). As everybody else has said, these are HEAVY bits of kit and they need to be so they don't move around when in use (which they don't). All in all the best stick and throttle I have ever used, even better than my F22pro and TQS. I know the price looks steep but my last TM cost a lot more than this but ended up being the cheapest HOTAS I ever bought, 23 years before it got replaced, I fully expect the Warthog to rival it for quality and longevity, I have no doubt, this will be the LAST, CHEAPEST HOTAS I will ever buy :)

Having owned this for a few months now i will give my opinion.It is a heavy beefy piece of kit, sit it on the desk, and be prepared to work out when you want to move it!It is very fluid in it movement, no jerky movements, it is great, and very well put together.I have owned various other HOTAS, and they were ok, or even good- right up to the point of breaking- in some cases it was broken out of the box - Saitek/madcats- Never again!pros and cons++ it is solid metal, Solid- OH YES - the joystick part that you hold on to with your right hand weighs more than my old X55(which was good, but cak build quality) and that is not even including the base- it is solid.++ it is heavy, and will not slide about your desk like a lot of the other ones.++ it is great for Elite Dangerous- No twist yar, which is not that big of a deal, as i simply use the secondary trigger to move left/ right (it has a 5 was switch - l/r, up, down and press to fire). Once you get used to doing it, it feels natural.- It is quite a price, BUT you get what you pair for- having killed 5 X55 rhinos in under 1 year, due to the utter inferior build quality, this beats them hands down!Overall i`d say if you are a serious game, and want a quality piece of kit VS as expensive piece of plastic(Saitek) then get this one, if you cant afford it, then wait for the Thrustmaster thruster block (estimated £100) and get a t1600 flight stick with it.Basically this is the dogs dodads of the HOTAS world- just buy it, and you wont regret it- only your bank manager(or wife) will...

I bought a set of these about a year ago for my flight simulator while living in Canada, and a visiting client was so incredibly impressed with them when he tried that I gave them to him. I was moving countries so didn't want to lug these with me. Now in UK, I have purchased this set again and the out-of-the-box experience the second time is as good as the first.You can spend an absolute fortune on flight sim stuff to get realism. There are guys forking out tens of thousands to get the ultimate realism. You can also get set up for about £100 with a joystick and have a bit of fun. And then there are products which cost quite a bit more but add immense realism to the experience without costing a fortune. The Thrustmaster Warthog falls into this category. Your ability to connect with the aircraft you're flying comes down to your joystick and throttle. This gives you a load of controls you can configure and the quality and feel is like the real thing (I am a real pilot). Compared with a £50 joystick this may seem expensive. But what you're getting is a replica of the real A-10 joystick and throttle and it seems to be built to the same spec. Almost everything is metal and switches and controls have a firm definite feel to them. The backlighting is really novel too.Although this is modeled on the A-10 (military aircraft) you can use this on any aircraft type including Cessnas or airliners. Thrustmaster include some configuration tool to program the buttons but you can do this from within FSX as it's recognised as a standard joystick. I would, however, recommend a tool called FSUIPC (written by Pete Dawson). This works with FSX and allows you to create different configurations of input controls such as this, for each aircraft you fly. So for example you can use FSUIPC to configure a 4 engine aircraft so that your left throttle is engines 1 and 2 and the right is 3 and 4. You can also adjust the sensitivity to give much more control over the lower end of the throttle range. Additionally it allows you to configure your control for helicopters, e.g. left throttle is collective and the right is throttle. Combined with this joystick this tool is awesome. FSUIPC just picks up on your aircraft and switches automatically. So if you buy this joystick and throttle I would recommend checking FSUIPC out. (Disclaimer: not affiliated with FSUIPC nor Peter Dawson, just an honest recommendation).If you spend 10+ hours a week on flying games, then you will really appreciate this equipment. It's solidly built and looks amazing. If you're more than a hobby/occasional flight sim enthusiast, and don't want to be spending several thousands, then this has to be top of your list, with a set of rudder pedals and if you're into airliner flying then an autopilot, and perhaps some radio/nav modules. I have tried other offerings in this price range and can tell you these are the absolute king, and you'll feel like one using them.