Throttle and stick have rubber pads and stayed on my desk well
But throttle afterburner detent you have to mount it or you will lift the base when using. In prop sims I use a curve to be 100% at the detent as its more comfortable hand position.
Well the quality negative first:
-I had one of the first ones, many months now and lost the firmware once but was able to reset it myself with a procedure holding down 2 buttons. The positive is it didn't have to be RMA.
-To get maximum accuracy I had to Re grease the insides myself with lithium grease
-I had this happen to stick after 6 months heavy use (I use it 20 hours per week):
http://www.warthogworld.com/hangar/showthread.php?65-Delamination-of-Anti-friction-Buffer-Ring-Programming is a pain if you don't want to put in the time, be prepared to spend a day per sim setting up good scripts
The plus:
-BEST stick for mounting, same with throttle. Base plates removed it is mounted just the round part at seat level. It's been even more invaluable teamed with the Obutto cockpit. The Only stick for the Obutto IMO
-Easy to extend the stick
-Most powerful scripting of any stick (although a pain)
-Most accurate stick I've ever used
-Very nice solid "real" feel to the stick throttle and buttons, make CH look like a plastic toy
So my thoughts are its not a buy and forget product. It's a high end hobbyist product and you MUST put time into it to get those most out of it.
Even with those negatives, the immersion and experience it gives me is second to none. If mine broke, and I couldn't fix it I would buy a new one as I can't ever go back to CH