CH Products Pro Throttle USB

Having gone through the x-52 TWICE, x-52 pro, a wierd ebay piece of junk, the x-55...THREE TIMES and a thrustmaster warthogthis thing felt like a piece of rubbish. Absolutly waste of money.then i used it more, the throttle has no tension options meaning its loose as all hell, you can list this up vertically and the throttle will slide down on its own.Theres NO buttons, everything is on the throttle. So no flick switches etc as you'd expect. Its ruddy plastic only...it initially feels like you've spent way more than the product is worth.But then you relise, its glass filled nylon and tough as nails. Its solid, like REALLY solid.The lack of buttons on the throttle base you've come to expect from other products is perfect, you hold your hand in ONE position and dont need to move it. Everything is at your finger tips, literally NINETEEN! BUTTONS. No other throttle can do this.Ergonomics, its bliss, i keep adjusting my hands as im SO used to letting go of the thing to press other buttons due to other HOTAS setups but i just dont need to with the ch pro throttle...The slide is smooth, unlike hall effect sensors you can feel there is a mechanical movement to the thing. Its a shame i thought at first as things like the exellent Thrustmaster hotas X use the same things and DO wear out over time, but CH is famous for people owning rigs pre-USB for over 15 years and still using them to this day without issues. Theres also multiple storties of people who do get issues finding its a simple wire disconnect and CH supply the parts for free if your willing to fit them yourself...THIS IS ONTOP OF A 2 YEAR WARRENTY.So whats left? Ergonomics, feel, build quality and customer support. Did i mention ingame while its a linear control over the arc style thats got famous it literally destroys the competition in precision?You wont regret this buy, if you do, then try the others, you'll quickly relise why and how quickly you'll return to this thing.

When I decided to buy some higher quality gear for my flight sims I wasn't sure if the investment would be worth it, but having used these items (I purchased the fighterstick, pro throttle and pro pedals together) I can assure you that it very much is! From my first flight in DCS World, taking out the Huey helicopter, the difference in control was immediately noticeable. I was really quite surprised by just how much of a difference it made. My venerable saitek X45 had served me well for the better part of a decade, but this CH gear eclipses it in every way. As I said the control response is fantastic, they are seriously solid bits of kit (I understand that CH's main business is to make real aircraft controls, so no toys here), and the software supplied is very powerful. Some people wont like the minimalist/retro design, but it suits me just fine. The other point some people mention is the light action of the fighterstick, which I love, especially for flying helicopters. The ONLY thing I miss from my X45 is the thumb rotary dial, but you can soon work around that.

I've owned a CH Products Pro Throttle for several years and until yesterday I've had no trouble with it.The plethora of buttons and controls are relatively easy to program and assign in sims (using the downloadable manager software) and it will be supported by Windows 7 64 bit if you need it.The construction is good (see later for caveat) and once calibrated using the manager software it's highly accurate (ie throttle off is indeed throttle off and full throttle is just that).Each button or control can have 3 uses because the side mounted ministick has a centre button that switches between 3 modes. There are 3 coloured leds to indicate which mode you're in.And that leads me on to the subject of reliability. The aforementioned ministick is very very useful. It's a tiny analogue joystick that can be assigned (amongst other things) to the mouse controller. So, for example, in sims that allow you to look around using the mouse (eg IL-2) you can use the ministick instead and never take your hand off the throttle. The ministick self centres and that is VERY important because it's side mounted vertically and gravity is not something you want involved in the equation. in other words without the self centering it'll flop downwards and you'll permanently be looking down in the sim, see? That being the case I was rather disappointed when yesterday (after several months of no usage) my ministick broke and won't self centre anymore.UPDATE:24 hours later and the ministick centering is back! I've not done anything to fix it, it just resolved itself and is working fine again. Most odd. I've no theory but it really seems OK now so I'll change my criticism to: 'can temporarily malfunction under some (unknown) conditions'.

As with the CH Fighter Stick I bought at the same time the styling of this throttle may be dull but the build quality and feel of the controls is outstanding. The position of the various controls is ideal for me and I particularly like the mini-joystick. I would highly recommend this throttle not only to go with other CH Products flight controllers but also, as it's one of very few throttles sold separately, as an addition to any other flight controller.

An excellent adition for anyone flight-simming, especially if you use a joystick. Have HOTAS control from all the many buttons and functions. Beware however that on a mac you get three selections with the mode button and thats all. Also beware on a mac that the mini joystick is virtually useless (correction - totally useless) as the centre wanders all the time.