The name CH Products is one that I automatically associate with high end flight sim controllers. Whether you are a civil aviation simmer or a combat jet jock CH Products have been producing products aimed at your hobby for a very long time. Some time ago I reviewed their USB Yoke and Rudder pedals HERE. I was very impressed. Let's see if their Hotas is as impressive.
Hardware
Before looking at the software and functionality lets take a look at the hardware itself. Unlike other hotas systems the CH gear is sold as seperate units, this is great if you are on a budget because you can get the stick first then grab the throttle when the pocket has recovered. The stick (Fighterstick USB ) is modeled on the sidestick found in the F16 and boasts the following features:
- Compatible with Windows 98 / ME, 2000 and XP (requires Diect X 7.0a or above) for PC and MacOS 8.6 and above (requires Input Sprockets 1.7x) for Macintosh
- 3 axis and 24 buttons (three push buttons, one mode switch button, three 4 way hat switches and one 8 way point of view hat)
- Total of 132 programmable functions with the new Control Manager software (included)
- Three separate programming modes accessed on the fly via mode switch on handle
- Color LED's to indicate mode selection
- Realistic F-16 handle
- Side slide throttle wheel
- Dual rotary trim controls allow for precision adjustment of ailerons and elevators
- Large sturdy base
- Easy USB installation
- Quality components and construction
- Two Year limited warranty
Sounds pretty good but how does it translate when the stick is in hand? Well funny enough after a lot of time with the stick I can say that the "blurb on the box" is actually quite conservative. Perhaps I'm a little biased because of my love of the F16 but I liked this stick the moment I grabbed hold of it. It feels very solid and well made. The buttons and hats are all very well placed and even well shaped and it feels very comfortable in the hand. Sure the USAF or General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin deserve a lot of the credit for the original design, but credit also has to go to CH Products for the quality of their USB version for the PC. All the hats and buttons are within easy reach and each has a very positive feel. The addition of a throttle rotary is great if you can't afford to get the stick and throttle in one puchase. When I noticed that it had trim wheels I was a little concerned as I have never liked trim wheels on a joystick, in the past I have found a tendency for my hand to brush against them during heavy action throwing the stick out of whack. Fortunately this wasn't the case with the Fighterstick USB, the hand guard at the base of the stick keeps the hand well away from the trim rotaries and so I found them to be a usefull feature rather than a problem. The stick has a good throw and fairly light springs. This was potentally going to be an issue for me because I have always preferred a stiff spring whereas the CH gear tends to use light springs. In this case it wasn't an issue because whilst the springs are pretty light they are not sloppy. The stick returns to centre quite easily whilst offering no real resistance. This means that you have very good control over the stick and don't feel like you have been in an arm wrestling match after a long dogfight. Like most joysticks CH have gone with traditional pots for the axes. The pots used by CH are of a very high quality though and unlikely to spike or fail. In fact CH have a pretty good record in the pot dept and whilst many other joysticks and hotas solutions have been plagued by spiking pots this is an issue that CH Products have always been pretty much immune to. All in all I am very impressed with the quality of the Fighterstick USB.
The throttle (Pro Throttle USB) boasts the following features.
- Compatible with Windows 98, ME, 2000 & XP for PC (requires Direct X7.0a or above) and MacOS 8.6 with Input Sprockets 1.7x for Mac
- Total of 69 different programmable functions (three 4 way hat switches, one 8 way hat switch, three push buttons and a 3 way mode switch)
- Mini-joystick for precise pointing or movement in supported games
- Control Manager programming software (included) allows easy setup of single key and macro commands for PC
- LED mode switch indicator for PC users
- Left handed jet grip style throttle
- Ergonomic jet throttle grip
- Forward and back throttle slide motion
- Super durable components
- Easy USB installation
- Sturdy base and 7 foot cable
Once again the blurb on the box is pretty accurate or possibly a little conservative. Unlike the stick, the throttle is not modeled on any real throttle and this is likely the source of many of my gripes with it. Again perhaps my bias born out of a love for the F16 comes into play but I found the throttle less comfortable to use than the stick. The throttle uses a flat forwards/backwards sliding motion rather than an arced movement. I wasn't keen on this but you can put that down to personal preference because it worked flawlessly in operation. In fact had I not been used to using arced throttles I probably would have thought nothing of it. I was also a little disappointed with the lack of any detents but again this is only a factor in a limited number of sims, although I really missed the afterburner detent when flying Falcon 4. The hats and buttons are made to the same quality as those on the stick and have a very good feel but I wasn't so happy with their placement. The distance between the bottom hat at the back and the hat at the front meant that I had to stretch a little to reach both at the same time. The ministick had a good feel to it but had a tendency to knock one of the hats with my thumb whilst using the ministick. A lot of this though can be put down to the fact that the CH throttle has a pretty unique design, most other PC throttles I've used in the past have a fairly uniform layout and so the uniqueness of the CH throttle felt alien to me. The throttle itself is constructed to the same quality as the stick and I did find that the more I used it the more acustomed to it I became. If you have never used a different throttle before you are unlikely to be affected by most of the points I raised. If you have used a different throttle you will probably need to go through that same period of adjustment before becoming comfortable with the throttle.
Software and drivers
The hardware is impressive but the real jewel in the crown with this Hotas is the software and drivers. For this area CH Products brought in Bob "Sticky" Church, anyone familiar with Bobs own site The StickWorks will know that I do not exaggerate when I say that Bob is a genius in this area. Because the units are usb the installation is pretty straight forwards. Just install the software, reboot, then plug in the device. The software is regularly updated so rather than installing the software provided on the disk you should grab the latest version from the CH site HERE
Because the stick and throttle (and rudders) are seperate usb devices they take up 2 (or 3) ports and show in windows as separate devices. Now some older software (eg Falcon 4) does not recognise more than 1 device so you would think this would be a problem. Not so with the CH gear because here we start to see some of Bobs genius in action. The control manager can combine multiple devices to form a single virtual controller in the windows Game Controllers applet.Effectively the drivers can fool windows into thinking that the Stick, throttle and rudders are a single device. This means that the hotas will work perfectly in all games. In fact if you had a CH yoke you could also combine that with the stick throttle and rudders to give you a huge amount of buttons hats and axes to control your sim of choice. This is something I used to good effect in IL2 Forgotten battles allowing me to use the levers on the yoke for complex engine management whist using the hotas to fly the plane.
Now when it comes to the programability and functionality we get into an area that is going to be very hard for me to do justice to in this review. What I am not going to even attempt to do is calculate how many functions you can program onto each button etc. I will say though that when CH say that there are a total of 132 programmable functions on the stick and 69 different programmable functions on the throttle they are selling the units way short. This may well have been true with the original control manager software but by version 2.10 of the control manager software the functionality was massively expanded and is now to all intents and purposes practically unlimited (sure there is probably a limit but you'd be hard pushed to calculate it let alone reach it).
There are several ways to program the hotas, if you really want to take the easy way then you can simply assign the buttons in the options menu of the game itself. Of course not all games allow that option. Not a problem because you can go into the control manager software, select the stick or throttle, click on the button you want to program, then press the key that you want that button to emulate. These 2 programming methods are very simple and powerful enough to suit most users. However, die hard flight simmers are not most users, we usually want a little more, we want geek level programmability. Well no one can accuse CH of not understanding simmers and sure enough for those that want the ultimate in flexibility CH have provided the CMS scripting language.
CMS gives you an incredible amount of flexibility, in fact it will allow the CH gear to do things that other sticks can only dream of and makes the CH Hotas overall the most flexible and programmable Hotas available. Here are a few simple examples of the kinds of things you can do with CMS
The first 2 examples come straight out of the CMS help file. The script itself is also included in the help file.
Automatic Trim
In practice, you move the joystick until you're flying straight and level. At that point, you press a button which locks the axes in that position. With the button held down, you return the joystick to it's center position and release the button. The trim setting will hold the controls in the trimmed position when the joystick is centered, and the stick will move the controls from that position as the joystick is moved from center. To reset the trim, you leave the joystick centered and click the button again.
Changing Joystick Response
In some circumstances, it can be desirable to change the response of your Controllers while you're using them in a game or simulation. For example, in a combat flight simulation, you might like to use a relatively insensitive response for normal flying, then switch to a more sensitive response during a dogfight to be able to respond more quickly. This example shows how you might set this sort of thing up using the SCALE function.
Master Arm
Imagine your sim has no master arm function but you wish to simulate one. You can program a button on the stick (or throttle) to disable and enable your "fire weapons" button on the stick so that pressing fire on your stick has no effect untill you have pressed the button that you programmed as the master arm button.
This power does come at a price though, CMS language is a C like scripting language, as such it is fairly complex and takes a little effort to learn. However if you have any programming experience you will find it a breeze. Even the novice can pick it up if you take it slow and follow the examples provided in the help file.
Conclusion
When you look at the RRP of $149.95 each for the joystick and throttle these may seem a little costly, however the price reflects the quality of the units. These are well made, well supported and will last for a very long time. With Bob Church updating the software and drivers on a regular basis the functionality of these units could well improve beyond their already exceptional level. The hotas is perfectly suited to those looking for "geek level" programming or for those looking for a simple plug in and go solution. There are more than enough buttons and hats to allow you to complete control of virtually every sim without taking your hands off the controls. The stick is outstanding and whilst I personally would have prefered a more traditional throttle design the CH throttle does everything it needs to do without any problems.The street price tends to be a lot lower than the RRP coming in at an average of $225 - $250. All in all a solid performer that can stand toe to toe with any other hotas in a feature vs feature or price vs performance comparison.
