Hi folks,

After a leave of abscence of over ten years I'd like to get back into flight sims. Other than the occasional attempt to play IL2 with a dodgy Logitec joystick I haven't played anything so I'm really out of things at the moment.

I've been trying to find a decent HOTAS set up and the X52 series is starting to look promising. Unfortunately I'm going to have to import whatever I decide on which is going to vastly increase to cost of the thing as well as ensure that I don't get the chance to test one out before buying it. Obviously any stick I buy will have to last me for a few years and reliability is an issue.

Keeping all this in mind I'm a little bit concerned about talk of deadzones and reliability issues with the stock X52, Unfortunately I can't find any up to date information about the standard X52 and whether Saitek has tweaked their manufacturing processes over the years to iron out the kinks. Can anyone tell me how new X52's handle these days? Is the reliability, quality and performance much worse than the X52 Pro?

I currently have Bob II, Falcon 4 : AF and EECH on order but historically I've always preferred WW 1 and WW2 sims which is why talk of a deadzone concerns me greatly.

Thanks in adavance for help you can give me.