[mikhael]

Now, when you get a chance, find someone with a HOTAS/Cougar and give it a shot. You'll cry when you see how good it feels and then you'll cry tears of blood when you realize that you're going to shell out the cash for it.

[KARMA]

If you can find the old sidewinder precision pro go for it.
It still is the best joy in the economy segment ever built, but I doubt you'll find it, since it came out of production a couple of years ago.
Mine has probably thousands of hours of activity (I've been in a spacesim clan for 4 years and I never changed it) and still works. It's highly imprecise in analogic, but in USB mode althought slower still works almost fine.
Avoid as hell the MS precision 2: it really suck
The wingman extreme digital 3d was pretty good, but from what I know it has a shorter life than the first precision pro.
An excellent stick for quality/price ratio was the Saitek gold, not sure if it still is sold.
There's also the thrustmaster (IIRC it's called precision pro too) but I nver used it nor I know of any using it, so....