You're completely right Paul... I've been going down that very road

when I was a little kid I used to play FS4 with the keyboard on a 286 black and white laptop

then I moved up to FS95 and got my first joystick. a Logitech Extreme... 2 axis, 4 buttons, not much else

by this time the joystick virus must have thawed out of it's spore, for not much later I was flying FS98 with the MS Sidewinder 3D... 4 axes!! 8 buttons!! now THAT was a joystick  

and soon after, MS's Force Feedback 1.0 (which I still have and works perfectly)... amazing piece of hardware that is!! how it managed to last 10 years, and still work even despite having the cables chewed by the dog  

after I moved out, my brother kept the FFB, and I bought a much cheaper, USB Leadership Cobra out of need... this one had its 4 axes and some 12 buttons... but FSX was out at the time, and I felt something was missing

then I saw it... or better it, grabbed it at a computer event... it was just awesome! I put aside my plans for building my own input device after I put my hand on that thing... it was an X52...

I worshiped that stick for months... I read every review on the net about it... but it was just SO expensive!! in Brazil (land of all taxes) just the X52 alone would cost me the equivalent to 700USD!! not to mention the pedals i was also drooling over

the opportunity came for me when I got to live in Mexico with my GF last year... I think it took me like, 2 days after I got there before I ordered   (she didn't like that very much)

A month it took! a whole, long, uncertain month... I usually don't have any trouble buying stuff online, but I was in another country, unsure of how things worked there... the wait seemed to last forever...
I was just about to give up, already having sent emails to the shop claiming it as lost merchandise, when it arrived!!

I rushed home to find a crumpled cardboard box, beaten up and probably forgotten for a while in some dark corner of some post office... but it was intact! my very own X52 Pro and the Rudder pedals to boot!!

I am happy now... for now... I'm starting to itch for the Yoke set...

I currently own 8 different joysticks, all told... I have my Sidewiders, the Cobra, the X52, the pedals, a gamepad, a wheel, and a Gearbox i built myself, but those are side stories that don't fit that well here  

the virus has spread and it's raging rampant  

Cheers


PS: if you couldn't help not wanting to know more about the gearbox, Click here