Customer Reviews

Logitech Flight System G940 Force Feedback Joystick

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this from Amazon, took the super-saver shipping and received it two days later, on a Thursday evening. The packaging was more than adequate and the controller arrived without a scratch on it. I've now had an entire weekend to play with it so these are my thoughts.

I run Windows XP and, like other reviewers, I ignored the CD and downloaded the latest drivers from the Logitech website. The programming software works ok, but is nothing special. My previous stick was the Thrustmaster Cougar and the flexibility of the Foxy software is in a different world to the Logitech one. That being said, however, I didn't personally use the vast majority of those features and instead downloaded other peoples' profiles from the web. Hopefully, the community will also supply a large number of profiles for the G940.

There is a minor nuisance with the software in that you can't assign stick functions, program a profile or, in fact, start the software at all without the controller plugged in. This is inconvenient, but not a showstopper.

The stick itself feels good in the hand and has a slightly rubbery feel to it. It has a larger footprint on the desk than any other stick I've owned which, presumably, is to accommodate the force feedback motors. The micro-stick on the joystick that looks like a POV-hat isn't, and the castle switch is instead used as the POV. Not sure that I particularly like that choice but the micro-stick can be programmed to act as a normal hat if needed. I've found I need to keep the dead-zone on the microstick axes relatively high to prevent unwanted inputs in flight as the calibration seems to drift slightly.

The throttle unit also feels decent in the hand but isn't exactly going to win any beauty contests. The twin throttles separate easily and also recombine easily. The action is smooth and the friction adjustable. The lit buttons on the throttle base also function nicely as buttons and, I'm told, will function as working LED indicators in the future. One of my gripes with the throttle is about the R1 and R2 rotaries. It would have been nice to have had either a detent or at least some physical means of telling when they were centered without having to look at the painted line on them. But if you're picky about that you can always file a small groove into the center-point yourself.

The pedals are lovely. Nice and solid, and wide enough for me. I'm 6"3 and find them pretty comfortable. I've never actually used any other sim-pedals before but I fly little single engine planes in real life so have a pretty good idea how rudder pedals should feel.

I've been playing IL2 and DCS Black Shark and have been loving the force feedback. At the default settings the feedback is nice and strong, and the force can be ramped up or down in the Logitech software to suit your tastes. Using the trim function in Black Shark and having the stick actually stay in the trim position is fantastic and actually 'feeling' your warbird about to enter a stall in IL2 really helps with both my flying and my sense of immersion in the sim.

The 3-axis trims on the stick are great in IL2 and incredibly useful. Once again, no 'feelable' center position but you can't have everything.

One thing I did after a few minutes of using the stick was to put a little piece of tape over the "dead man's switch". This is a little sensor that detects whether the user's hands are on the stick or not and turns down the force feedback if necessary. It's a nice feature in theory but, especially in black shark with the stick in a trimmed position, I find the stick will jump around if I loosen my grip on the stick and no longer cover the sensor, so I took the decision to cover it up permanently. I just make sure to unplug the DC power to the stick if I leave it unattended.

Overall, very happy with the product with just a small wish-list for extra software functionality.

I was really looking forward to using the new G940 and very excited about the features like a split throttle and force feedback.

Sadly, after less than 1 month of very light use, the rudder and toe brake axes have near constant spiking, rendering the rudder pedals unusable. Logitech touted the contactless design of the pots but apparently they were only refering to the X & Y axes on the joystick.

I generally do not post reviews of products (though I do read and appreciate them) but people need to know my experience with this poor quality offering from Logitech.

In addition, Logitech's support is very slow - they promise an answer to online service requests within 24 hours, but I didn't receive an email response until about a week later, and then all the customer service rep asked for was the product information like model and serial number, which I had already provided in the online form (it was even contained in the text of the email respone to me).

I am extremely disappointed with the G940 - I will keep updating this review with my service experience.

Length:: 7:35 Mins

The video review:
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The first part of the video/intro just shows some games I've used the G940 with (rather long).
If you just want to see the G940 unit in the video, skip to 3:28
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The retail box with everything in it weighs: 15.4 lbs.

Joystick weighs: 2.64 lbs
Dual Throttle weighs: 2.2 lbs
Rudder Pedals weighs: 6.17 lbs

Games I've tried this controller with:
* IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 (highly recommend! if you're going to get this controller, then you need this game; or if you already play this game a lot, then you need this HOTAS!)
* Microsoft Flight Simulator X / Acceleration
* Lock On: Modern Air Combat
* DCS: Black Shark
* Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

FORCE FEEDBACK:
The forcefeedback will vary depending on the software; it can get really insane or seem like a wasted potential. I find the force feedback excellent and works best with "IL-2 Sturmovik 1946"; when I fire my weapon, there's a nice rumble and really feels like I'm shooting. The rumble when taking off/landing is also great in IL-2/FSX. Now, if I set the force feedback to 150% then it'll vibrate just from the engine/flying - but that makes my hands feel weird/tired. However, for "DCS Black Shark" and "Lock On", the force feedback isn't as impressive; I don't feel anything when firing missiles. If "enable centering spring" is not checked in the Logitech Profiler, the joystick for the game "Lock On" is really loose unless I encounter G-force or crash.

OTHER THOUGHTS:
- Make sure the power plug is not loose at all; I wondered why the joystick became loose and no force feedback was going... and it was that simple mistake at times.
- The throttle has buttons that are green LED. There is a zip file called "JoystickSDK" on the software folder where you can mess with the LED to also red/amber/off. Unfortunately, since the G940 has only been released recently, there's no games that can take advantage of the color changing LED to indicate status of your aircraft/etc. It would be nice if it could at least make it change colors when switching modes on the throttle (there's up to 3)
- It comes with a set of cut-out button labels (and you can try to make your own, of course) where you can put underneath the LEDs, in case you forget what the button does. It's a nice touch, but since it has "P1, P2, P3... etc" printed bold right in the center of the plastic cover, it's actually hard to read.
- The Joystick base can get quite warm.
- The power plug, throttle, pedal all connect directly to the joystick.
- The throttle/pedal tension can be adjusted
- I wish there was some sort of click/lock or indication by feel when the trim is actually being centered.
- Has directional/hat-switch buttons on the throttle and joystick! But I highly recommend getting TrackIR! (I absolutely love that thing! It's a must for flying simulators and especially if you want to add more realism on top of this controller!)

Pros:
+ Looks and feels great; throttle and joystick handles are made out of rubber material so you'll have good grip. (although there are plastic parts that somewhat detract the overall quality)
+ Ergonomic joystick buttons (nice extra button for the pinky behind the joystick)
+ Force feedback (not your simple cheap gamepad controller vibration, but really simulates the effect).
+ Stainless steel rudder pedals
+ Throttle has a mode toggle switch button allowing more button configurations.
+ Love the dual throttle! (can also lock it to be single) - feels good in the hands.
+ Holes on the joystick/throttle for bolting it down.

Cons:
- Setting up the controls was quite a nightmare! Spent way too many hours trying to figure things out because button configurations could conflict from game or the Logitech Profiler. Don't even think you can just jump right in the cockpit and start flying with this. Would be nice to get more detailed step-by-step on properly configure things for the games (there is a PDF file included telling you how to set up correctly for FSX, Lock On, Falcon, IL-2).
- Makes this strange buzzing noise when the joystick is idle and not centered
- On old games/arcade style, it sees the HOTAS (joystick, throttle, pedal) as the same input device (ie: the X-Y axis for the joystick end up the same as the throttle). The only way for me to use the G940 with a game like H.A.W.X was to assign/emulate the keyboard buttons to the controller/assign "zones" (you can assign/trigger keys on certain positions, "zones", on the throttle if you'd like) to the throttle through the Logitech Profiler.
- Games that really fully take advantage of this HOTAS is limited (hopefully, this will change with more flying games/LED-changing support/etc.).

Although it's not perfect, overall, I give it a 5 stars because it makes flying more enjoyable (especially in IL-2) and it comes with all the essential parts to start flying/force feedback for an affordable price. I'm more of a racer and own the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel, but now Logitech has brought a "G25" version -- well, a "G940" -- to the open skies and now I've become addicted to flying. I really hope to see more flight simulator games supporting the G940 ready-to-go; the device should only get better as time goes by with better support just like it did with the G25. The G940 should become the standard in all future games. Logitech is really taking over the gaming peripherals and setting the bar for the mass consumers. Now, I hope Logitech will give us a nice yoke add-on with this!

As a professional simulator engineer this system combines in one package the essential tools needed to fly fixed wing aircraft. The advertisements state that this system is good for all aircraft, I specialize in helicopters and would not use this system for them.
Compared to other systems the price is well below the combined price of the competition. Having used all of the competing products at one time or another, Logitech got it right with this system. I missed the force feedback on my old flight stick and was actively looking for a true dual throttle when I found this system. The quality of this product is equal to the competition which says a lot considering the price. The serial connectors used to connect the pedals and the throttle to the flight stick were the perfect choice. Some reviews addressed this issue wanting each one USB instead. I personally like this feature because if I wanted to extend the length of the cables it's easy to with a db9 extender cable (not a serial extender cable, some connections are missing), try doing that with USB. Besides some computers have limited USB ports and you need only one USB port for the entire system. At least this will save the cost a USB hub. The only draw back to this system is the price of the initial purchase. However, the professional flight simmer can not fly with only one or two devices. To really enjoy the sensation of flight you need these three components, so save your money to get this system.

Here's the deal. Logitech doesn't have a great reputation among hardcore flight simulation enthusiasts. So you ask, "why is this?" I'll tell you why. Because their products are usually poor quality and have poor accuracy. Perhaps for someone who only needs a joystick 'every once in awhile' they might be just fine, but to be used day in and day out.. they break pretty quickly. Usually in Logitech's case, it was due to the pots going bad in the sticks.

Then they released the G940. A lot of flight sim geeks were extremely leery with purchasing this setup. Logitech kept marketing their stuff and hyping it up and a lot of people were saying a lot of great things about it so a few of us bought into the hype and gave up our hard earned money.

Yes, I'm going to slam the stick and the company (it IS a two star review after all) but to be fair, I want to talk about the positives first. You have to understand that there is a LOT of good about this stick... and I mean A LOT! If this wasn't the case, I wouldn't be bothering to write this right now because it is Logitech after all, but what they have here could have been THE BEST OF THE BEST of the HOTAS world. I'll explain why it is not at the end.

OK THE GOOD:
-Split Throttle
-Lots of Buttons
-Dual Stage Trigger
-Highly programmable (like any other stick)
-FORCE FEEDBACK which works VERY nicely
-HALL EFFECT SENSORS instead of pots on the X/Y stick axes
-Complete setup, includes stick, throttle AND rudders
-Competitive pricing (About the same or less than buying a decent HOTAS stick, throttle, and pedals separately in some other quality brands)
-Looks cool
-Feels durable. Still plastic-like, but what isn't these days?
-Lots of trim wheels
-Very accurate, as long as you don't reverse the direction of any axis (SEE BELOW)
-Buttons on the throttle can be programmed to display three difference colors

Now THE BAD:
-No programs support the programmable throttle buttons' colors.
-A bit of center area where the Force Feedback doesn't work (this is to protect the motors and pretty typical for all FFB sticks)
-Goofy calibration stuff (have to move all axes through full motion before using after boot up or it does goofy things.. it's a 'self calibrating' thing)
Stick doesn't want to stay perfectly 'centered' when released as a result
-Programming software is still a tiny bit 'glitchy'

Now the four BAD things listed really aren't that big of a deal, and to be honest what programming software ISN'T just a bit glitchy, but their are two HUGE issues that affect this stick which make it impossible for me to recommend it. (To be fair, I only gave it 2 stars instead of 1 so more people would read the review).

The first (and most important) is LOGITECH CUSTOMER SUPPORT, and you can probably throw their Engineers in there as well. Because the company is so huge, and has so many department it becomes almost impossible for them to be able to make even a small 'tweak' to fix problems. If you email their tech support, they simply give you an 'automated' response with a ticket #, and then "close" the issue a couple of days later with no real resolution. If you call them, they simply give you a ticket # and do the same. (They explained later in small print that 'closed' doesn't really mean closed and that they're still looking into your issue) but personally I feel that this method simply makes most people give up. Perhaps if I had been more ignorant or reverted to foul language and threats then maybe I'd have seen some more effort. Or maybe if I had a REAL issue with my stick (broken during shipping or the like) instead of complaining about a serious design flaw, then maybe I wouldn't have been shoved aside either.. who knows.

Now it's time to talk about something in which Logitech calls "Hysteresis", but we call the "Reversal Bug". This is the second show stopping issue for this stick. As long as you keep moving an axis in the same direction it works great! If you reverse an axis' direction, then it JUMPS by as much as FIVE PERCENT making it impossible to 'fine tune' your aim, throttle position, trim position, etc. This occurs in ALL G940 axes, pot or not, and some areworse than others! This is not an issue with just a few sticks.. this is a DESIGN FLAW that exists in every G940 they've produced. The good news is that we have finally been able to get Logitech to admit to this, and that it can be fixed at the firmware level.

The even better news is that they've finally decided to work with us to develop a firmware to help correct the issues. I was even emailed a BETA firmware which reduces the amount of "Reversal Bug" in the X and Y axes by about 65%.

The BAD news is that they STILL believe this "Hysteresis" is actually a good thing and we can't convince them otherwise.
The EVEN MORE BAD news is that they announced that they have no plans to REMOVE this "Hysteresis" and they have no plans to even TOUCH the pot axes (throttle, rudder, trims, toe brakes, mini mouse, etc) so we're just going to have to 'deal with it'.

And all the while, they refuse to even explain to us WHY this "Hysteresis" exists in the first place. The Engineers SWEAR that this is a beneficial 'feature' but I personally have yet to meet an engineer who is in touch with what the public wants. The customer service guys simply want to pass the buck to 'The powers that be' and nobody really cares about truly fixing the issue.

It's so ridiculous that even if they WERE to fix all of the issues today, I still wouldn't recommend this stick to anyone because of the aggravation of it all. It simply makes no sense, and if I ran my business that way, I'd be bankrupt within a few months.

Make sure you watch this video before you make a decision:
[...]

I was given the opportunity to review this flight simmer system. As an avid flight simmer, I was very enthusiastic about the entire set-up of this system, which includes a joystick with force-feedback, rudder pedals and a throttle.

Pros:
1. Set-up: Right of of the box, I was impressed with the quality of the equipment. I inserted CD for installation, and within a few minutes I was using the system with my MS Flight Simulator (in this case FSX). Set-up for basic functions was fairly easy, but it is obvious that there are limitless ways for customization of this system. It is powered, so you need to plug it in first before use.
2. Quality: Obviously, when you are spending a significant amount of money on something like this, you want to be sure that it will last. Frankly, I thought that the items were of good quality for the money. The joystick is solid and hopefully lasts for a long while. The rudder pedals are very solid and seem well-built. They are actually pretty heavy and stay in place quite well. Similarly, the throttle is also a good quality item. Overall, it seems well built from a mechanical point of view.
3. Ease of use: First off, the joystick is a force-feedback design. In other words, as you roll on the runway, fly through turbulence and move the plane, the joystick will move in your hand. The joystick also has plenty of buttons for customizing weapons functions or aircraft features depending on your wishes (however, the basic features are already in place such as landing gear and flaps). Especially for combat simulators this is really a neat and immersive feature. The pedals are also very good for combat type games and add a very good feature. The throttle is quite easy to use as well.
4. Aesthetic: Well, from the start, you will realize that this item is NOT something to cart to work to use during a break as it is significant and takes up space. But, for its purpose, it is nice-looking. The pedals are well-designed and certainly look and feel as though they could be a home-built system. I do appreciate that the entire system looks like serious pieces of equipment and not like toys (even though they are in effect adult toys).
5. Immersion: Except for the overwhelming aspect of learning to fly all over again if your not used to this type of system (see below), the immersion of this system is pretty compelling, and it does make me feel as though I am more inside the game than just using a simple joystick.

Neutral:
1. Quibbles: I frankly wish that there was a off switch for this item so that you could simply turn off the features when you were done. Instead, you have to unplug the power for the system.
2. Overwhelming: This thing is not for a casual gamer. I had to re-learn how to fly again with this system as I never had pedals before (I simply had a rotating joystick for a rudder). After years of flying in a certain style, the learning curve is significant and takes some time. I cannot express how many times I accidentally hit a pedal and caused an upset or a stall or a crash during a heated dogfight. And even more times than I can count, I 'augered' in (or bought the farm) during a landing. This can be frustrating! So, unless you are used to this type of system, don't think you can simply adapt in a few hours and be fine - you will learn to fly all over again.
3. Size: Again, this is a neutral quality. It is a significant piece of equipment that you cannot just hide from spouses, children or snoopy friends. confess to your inner flight sim geekdom or this system will reveal it for you!

Cons:
1. Price: Well, the question you have to ask yourself is can you afford this item without causing a domestic problem. It is not cheap, but for a avid flight simmer, it is WELL worth it because of the immersive quality, and it sure beats tyring to build your own. Now, maybe I can set-up some more monitors!?
2. Quibble: I have several different flight sims including the IL2 family of games as well as FSX 2004 and FSX. As for combat sims, this unit is awesome. On the other hand, for flying a 747 in FSX, the force feedback is a little too much. I wish there was simpler way to switch off force feedback in different scenarios (and there may be one lurking inside that I haven't found yet), but sometimes the force feedback is a little too much and becomes gimmicky.
3. Durability: My only concern is that given the daisy-chain way in which everything plugs into the rudder pedal base, I sincerely hope that I can plug a replacement joystick (because these have a habit of failing after heavy use in short order) into the base unit without a significant problem. This hasn't failed for me, but rather, I just want to know that this will be replaceable in the future given the not insignificant cost of this system.

Overall, I think this is a really easy to use and immersive system that a avid flight simmer will enjoy immensely. I have a variety of Logitech products and I always find them to be well designed, well detailed and quality products. This system is certainly no exception.

I've gone through many other joysticks and the only one that can give me the feel of flying an aircraft or helicopter is the G940... Let's face it, there is no real fun without a force feedback device like this. I'm a real life pilot flying the Embraer 190 as a First Officer but before that (like all pilots) have to get the private and commercial licenses with the instruments and multi-engine ratings flying small airplanes like cessnas and pipers. The feel of small aircraft in FSX is close to the real thing (using FsForce2 add-on... the one default with FSX is not that great) in situations like the stall buffet, hardening of controls when flying at high speed, ground feel when taxing and on takeoff, touchdown, landing gear up and down, etc... Flying larger aircraft have a different feel that is simulated very well using this add-on too. When playing other games like IL-2, Wings of Prey, Rise of Flight, Strike Fighters 2 Israel/Vietnam/Europe and First Eagles 2 using a non force feedback joystick is BORING at times... but not with the G940... Now... talking about the features that this flight system has all I can say is wow... It has a lot of programmable buttons, hat switches and wheels... The feel when grabbing the joystick and throttle is great, it doesn't slip out of your hands like others... The profile manager is a must... First you have to clear all joystick association in the game (except axis) and then you build your game profile... Now with the new firmware (version 4.1 I think) and software (version 5.09) the feel and functionality have improved a lot.
If you want the best of the best... If you want immersion... If you want to give new life to all your games... This is the product for you...

Ever since I first booted up MS Flight Simulator 5, I dreamed of having a real flight sim setup. Now that I have one, I've booted up MS Flight Sim X again, and it feels like I'm playing it for the first time. If only Meigs Field were still around, sigh.

Joystick:
- Great build quality. Solid, heavy, attractive.
- Like all the parts, it has hard points if you want to physically mount it to your desk or cockpit for ultra realism.
- Trim. Most joysticks don't have trim controls, so this was a nice surprise.
- All programmable buttons, which are nicely labeled and have an audible click when you press them.
- The base is large enough to rest your arm on, yet still maintain control.
- No "3D twist" like modern joysticks, though it's not really needed with rudder pedals, and is unrealistic anyway.
- Two hat switches.
- Force Feedback, something I hadn't used since the 90's, is welcome back. I missed it! It's adjustable as well, as everything seems to be with this setup.

Throttle:
- Nearly similar size to the joystick, a bit smaller.
- All the buttons light up, and again, are completely programmable.
- You can remove the caps for the buttons, allowing you to label them yourself.
- Throttle splits so you can have independent controls, allowing you to control two engines. The lock is sturdy though, when you have them joined, there's no wiggling and you won't notice that they can split.
- HAT switch, like on the joystick, an unexpected surprise.
- Really more buttons (and on top of that, a mode shift which doubles all the buttons) than I'll ever use.

Rudder:
- Stainless steel footrests, with grooves for the arch of your foot. Fancy.
- Adjustable tension, for those of you with strong legs, for sliding the pedals back and forth.
- Underneath, carpet spikes! I don't have carpet but I thought it was a nice addition.
- Toe breaks are great and work great.

Overall I'm enjoying this setup, I've read reviews of the competition(CH and Saitek) and it sounds like they need to play a little catch-up. The force feedback (not available from CH), dual throttle (unique), and little extras like hard points, make this *the* top of the line setup.

The G940 is a potentially great product that is difficult to give a *star* rating to. The reason is that your experience with it is going to depend hugely on what games you use it with, what your expectations are, and how patient you are.

If you are using this stick on a game that is programmed to use FFB effects and these effects have been programmed "correctly" (i.e. programmed in a manner specifically specified by Logitech for this stick), then you will probably have a wonderful experience. The trouble is, very few games are programmed to take advantage of this yet. So even though I believe the hardware on this system is top notch and capable of very high precision, its hard to know what will work well and what won't right now. FSX with the FS Force add-on evidently works great, for example, but other recent games such as DCS: Black Shark have poor FFB performance on this stick (other FFB sticks are said to be much better). Another very common issue with this stick is "slop", which is seen in many FFB games (including Black Shark), and is exhibited in EVERY non-FFB game. Basically, this means that the center 10 to 20 percent of travel in the middle of this stick has almost no center spring effect. This is a nasty, nasty issue that can evidently be overcome through software (either Logitech's for non-FFB games, or the game makers for FFB games), but to this date Logitech has not yet addressed this in non-FFB mode and this remains an unresolved issue for many FFB games. This is why, if you are expecting a great FFB experience out of the box, it will depend on games you own, whether the "slop" is an issue for you, and how patient you are to wait for Logitech and game makers to fix these issues.

I have heard that other Logitech FFB stick have similar issues, but one thing they need to know loud and clear is that when you introduce a serious HOTAS product with this kind of price tag, issues that aren't a big deal in a lower-end stick are just not acceptable in a product targeted at more "serious" use.

I purchased my first FFB stick (an MS FFB Pro) about ten years ago and it's amazing to me that the industry still doesn't have its act together. I enjoyed that stick for quite a while, but I stopped using that stick many years ago when I went with a full HOTAS setup, which up until now had no vendors offering a FFB solution. I had high hopes for the G940, but so far they are not yet met. I do have to say that the stick does offer other features that are quite nice and which overcome the FFB deficiencies fairly well for me. I am also going to hold out for improved software as Logitech is providing some strong hints that future revs of their profile software is going to offer some big improvements. Hopefully, this will be enough to push this stick to a solid 5 star rating.

Logitech G940 Review 3-11-11

Just before I ordered Logitech's G940, I ordered and tried the Saitek X52, (not to be confused with the X52 Pro). I fly mostly in FSX, (lately helicopters and stick controlled planes), and have just started flying some of the other 'action' games like Wings over Europe.

This is not a review about the X52 so I will not go into detail about it other than to say that for my purposes, (flying stick control planes and Heli's), the X52 fell short by quite a bit.

When I read all the reviews about the G940 I have to say that I was afraid to spend the money on it. But then it dawned on me that almost every review I read that had something terrible to say about the G940 was dated one or more years ago!

So I bought it and the first thing I noticed was that the stick was limp and fell over to the side. I have never had a Force Feedback stick so I wasn't sure if it was broken or not.

I called the Logitech Customer Service and quickly got a real person on the line, (that surprised me!). I wanted to know if the stick was suppose to be that way until the game was loaded and I didn't want to take it all out of the box and hook it all up just to have to put it all back in the box again.

Well the CS rep was not familiar with the G940 or any other Flight Sim joystick and after I repeated my simple question 4 or 5 times he told me "yes it will straighten out when you plug it in". And then a minute later he changed his mind and said that it is broken and to box it back up and ship it back.

So I discarded his advice, (all of it), hooked it all up and as soon as I plugged the stick into a USB port, (after plugging in the power supply), it came alive like it is supposed to. A tight, detailed report on the G940 is beyond my ability time wise.

So the short of it all is this; Forget all about the bad reviews you may have read because most are dated quite some time ago, (one of the latest I could find was 11 months ago and the rest were over a year). Buy the G940, hook it up and download the software. THEN BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, go to Logitech's website and update the software, (at this point in time it was something like vrs 5.10.1.

Then be absolutely sure to find and download the latest FIRMWARE! I believe that is vrs. 1.41 at the time of this review. Don't expect the stick to give you anymore than it promised and you will be happy with it. This is a device for games, (yes, most flight sims are 'games'). Approach it from that point of view and you will be as happy about it as I am.

The materials used are metal and plastic but high quality and the feel of the Throttle, Rudder pedals and joystick, (including all the buttons), is better than any I have tried or owned including the Saitek X52, (built better than the X52 by quite a bit might add).

I also have and use the Saitek rudder pedals, yoke, throttle, and switch box and I like those but for 'stick controlled' planes and Helicopters the G940 is Definitely the way to go.

Great Product and no software/firmware problems, (providing that you make sure you have the latest updates), that I can find in spite of some serious attempts to make it screw up as describe in some reviews. Go for it, you won't regret it and you can always send it back if you don't like it. But try it out and see for yourself!