[wolfen]

Well the last flight controller I bought was a M/S Sidewinder Precision pro yall remember the one it hooked up to a game port on the older sound cards, or with a usb adapter, well here I am protecting the Duke in Blue Planet when I tried to turn on an enemy craft when all of a sudden the ship I was flying kept going straight , I rammed the demon ship and well.........guess who died
Needless to say since 98 that old Sidewinder gave me nothing but excellent performance, therefore it received a honorable burial today in the back yard, right before I went to best buy and purchased a brand spanking new Logitech  Extreme 3D pro. I hope this stick will give me as many years as the old Sidewinder did.
All I can say is thank God for game default settings I didn't even have to set up the absolute throttle

[wolfen]

And today I resurrected the M/S Sidewinder. dam glad I put it in a bag and box before burying it, the brand new logitech started making a click sound that I could feel in the stick, so I exit Freespace and go to the calibration program to see what the heck is up, yaw was good, roll was good, but pitch had a click, no movement on the screen so i figure with, I start playing Freespace again and what do ya know it was a crack in the handle, I pulled up slightly and the whole hand grip snaps off the base.
I really wish M/S still made the sidewinder cause obviously Logitech is crap. I'm gonna check over at CH products and see if they have any reasonable sticks with a twist grip.

[Trivial Psychic]

...I start playing Freespace again and what do ya know it was a crack in the handle, I pulled up slightly and the whole hand grip snaps off the base.

That happened to me once before my FS days.  I was playing Rogue Squadron 3D with some noname stick and I was turning sharply and the whole stick broke off at the base.  I actually managed to complete the mission, by using my left hand thumb to move the ball base while I fired weapons from the buttons on the stick.  Needless to say, I didn't do well.

If you're looking for a decent stick, try the Saitek Cyborg EVO... that's what I'm using right now (I do have an X52 but its in mothballs until my little girl is old enough as to not pose a risk of damaging it).  I found it completely by accident at a value village for $5 (the Cyborg).  The only issue I've found is a tenancy to need to be calibrated before each use.  Otherwise it will drift in mission.

[Mongoose]

You can solve that drifting issue by moving the stick to all of its axis limits while in-game.  Apparently it triggers some sort of auto-calibration that gets everything back to normal.