Same here, CH just doesn't appeal to me much. But then again I never saw one in real life either.
Please keep us posted about your thoughts on the 940. I'm interested in what you think of it.

You made a mistake. Trust me. The 940 will break your heart. It looks awesome, doesn't it? Dual throttles, rotary trims RIGHT where you want them, those neat 3-way led buttons, force feedback, hall sensors, metal pedal inlays....

Yea, I was sold too.

Then came the problems: The pots started spiking in the rotary trims on the throttles, then the throttles stopped registering in snyc (ie, if I locked them physically together, one would still lag behind the other digitally). Then the pedals started sticking (not as bad, I can still use them, but I give them less than a seasons use before they die). Plus, the FF stinks, it's like someone poured rocks into the gear mesh. The software and after-market support suck too. I Have yet to see a real way to use those three way buttons on the throttle.

I'd also say flying heli's with it is ill-advised. The need for constant forward stick pressure puts stress on the FF motors. Not a big deal though, as the pots will fail long before the motors do.

I've used the G940, Saitek X52, and CH Hotas gear.

the CH stuff isn't perfect, but it works, it's precise, it's programmable, and it works.

Did I mention the CH stuff works?

My advice: Learn to like the CH gear. It's the best available right now.

Looks aren't everything when it comes to flight sim controllers. On that note, yes, CH gear is very reliable, and you can program just about anything you can imagine to it.

Derk: Will do.

Aggressorblue: Thanks for the input. I'll definitely keep a look out for those issue. But the problem with flying helis isn't a problem for me since I don't, lol. A question though: How long and how much use did you get before the G940 failed on you?

It's too bad Thrustmaster isn't an option because its in the same category of quality CH gear is in, only its more expensive and doesn't look like a 1980's controller. My only issue with CH has ever been looks (a large number agree), I'll bet the person in charge of looks drives a mint Trans-Am wears a denim jacket (sleeves may or may not be present) and rocks out to Motley Crue on the way to the office (no offense M.C.)!

If they could just re-design the look of their equipment they would not only have the best in terms of quality but looks too.

NP, I'd say I got about 4 months of modest use before major issues popped up.

Uh, what? Sorry, but unless your talking about old school TM (Saturn ring anyone?), then no, TM isn't in the same league. Some observations:

-There's been more reported failures of Warthog equipment than it's CH analog within the SimHQ forums.

-In Joe Keefe's SimHQ review of the Warthog, he goes out of his way to disassemble the review unit, acknowledging a major concern from the community that it would follow in the footsteps of the failure-prone Cougar. See for yourself.

-The Warthog "fleet" is less than a year old, so it's too early to tell if it will hold up.

-In the TM MFD review, one of the units had already had a back-lighting failure.

Now, the cast metal build of the Cougar and Warthog might feel solid, but if they can't withstand the test of time, sooner or later your left with just an awesome looking/feeling static display.

THAT my friend, is funny!

As a proud owner of an Hotas Cougar, I must agree with aggressorblue. Even then the quality of the assembly left a lot to be desired, and a lot of cougars fell to ungreased gymbal wear, misaligned switches and poor pots. Not to mention the throttle pot failing if the unit was programmed with the throttle at one extreme, something I think got fixed in the later revisions. My cougar had a few switches rotated to be closer to the F16 ones, the axle re-greased immediately after it was bought and lately the pots have been replaced with homemade hall sensors. It's fantastic, but it it didn't come out of the box like this.

I haven't had any serious problems with my Cougar, though it does have its quirks. (Throttle pot started having slightly irregular response, and the microstick pots are really screwed up.) But I think a lot of that boils down to the fact that mine was modded when I got it (FCC in the stick), and it's only been more extensively modded since then (specifically the throttle, which now has a Hall sensor and UTM bushings to eliminate the stiction).

The only way I would part with this thing is if money becomes really tight, though it's getting to that point where I may have to find a buyer for the FCC-1 and live on stock gimbals and pots for the time being.

What would ultimately be ideal, though, is if CH gear had the feel of TM gear, but kept everything else intact...