Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X - Opinion

Mav · Trainee Joined: Apr 15, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi all!

I'm looking for a new joystick to use with FS2004. I'd love to get a yoke & pedals combo (I'm flying a Cessna 150 in real life and am using FS2004 for practice), but I can't justify the $500-$600 for a Saitek or CH combo. I've currently got a Logitech Attack 3 but find it's pretty limited with no hat or rudder controls. I used to own a Thrustmaster Top Gun Afterburner joystick, but I had to chuck it out when the rubber on the grips got tacky, making the joystick awful to use. I also hated the flip-up cover over the main button on the top of the RH handle. Other than these issues, I really liked it. When I was using it for games other than FS, I could remove the throttle control and disable the twist function (normally used for rudder control in FS). You could also adjust the tension on it using a knob underneath the main joystick.

I've seen that Thrustmaster now have the T.Flight Stick X, which looks almost identical to the Top Gun Afterburner, but it appears to have the following differences:

Full plastic on the grips - no rubber
No flip-up cover on the main button
Grey coloured (not silver like the old Top Gun)

These changes appears to have fixed all the things I didn't like about the Top Gun Afterburner, so I'm thinking of getting one of these.

Does anyone have any comments/experience on this joystick? Does anyone know if there's a store in Brisbane that has one on display? (Preferably in Brissie's south east.) I'd like to touch one to see if I like the feel of it. Does anyone know what the best Brissie price is?

- Mav

Bowdog · Trainee Joined: Nov 13, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi Mav,

This may be too late for you, but here's my 2 cents worth:

I've heard a few people mention that their TM joysticks have given up the ghost. I have personally owned two and they have been amazing.

The first was the FLCS/TQS/Rudder which I bought about 20 years ago. After 5 years of hard use the roll potentiometer started to fail. I took it to Guillemot in Sydney (the manufacturer head office in Aust) and they gave me a new pot on the spot - free of charge.

About 2 years ago I bought a TM Cougar from the flightsim store. The main reasons were
a) realism (I'm a Falcon junkie)
2) USB connection - it was tedious using the old DB15 connector

The Cougar is incredible value for a top quality item. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the joystick style interface. Also, given the number of switches/buttons/hats on board, and the software support, it can be adapted to most situations in most sims without the need for keyboard input, if that's what you want to do.

The old FLCS/TQS is still working and might make it onto my next cockpit, but I'll have to buy new rudder pedals. My 20yo TM pedals are still going strong - pity they didn't come with toe brakes.