| CH Products Combatstick
by Tim "Flyboy" Henderson |
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CH Products has been around forever, and not long ago I gave away an old CH stick to a nephew. It still worked fine and had to be five or six years old. CH is known for quality, and their gear tends to stand up very well. Its taken a while, but CH Products is making the move to digital USB devices. Their flight yoke has gone USB, and now their sticks are making the shift. CH pedals and throttle will be USB be early fall. Test System
The Combatstick is a stripped down Fighterstick. The Fighterstick has an eight way hat and three four way switches plus rotary throttle, while the Combatstick has two four way switches, five fire buttons and a trigger in addition to the rotary throttle. That means you have a total of fourteen functions on the Combatstick, and a total of twenty functions on the Fighterstick. It's not quite THAT simple, however, because the Fighterstick is designed as a stand alone unit, though you can still add the USB Pro Throttle when it arrives. With the new Pro Throttle you will double your functions on the stick, for a total of 34 functions on the stick alone. As I said, I've also had great respect for CH gear, and I'm confident that this unit will stand up well in the long term. But I have to confess that it feels rather light compared to other current gear. |
 I have five sticks currently vying for my attention. The F22 Pro and TQS are favorites, as is my SUNCOM gear. I also have a Cyborg3d (non USB) and some ancient SUNCOM gear (F15E Eagle complete with headset.) The CH Combatstick is the lightest of these units and I wish they would get some real steel into the stick. Enough complaining, how does the stick fare in actual use? Install and Setup Installation and setup is a snap, as befits a USB device. Documentation is provided in a single page pamphlet, all that is needed to install this device. Gone are the hassles and drift and jitter. The new Combatstick is digital and with the old game port out of the way precision is greatly enhanced. The Combatstick was not originally designed as a stand alone product, but now with a throttle wheel and USB, it's a much more flexible unit. I hooked it up in tandem with my CH pedals and gave it some air time in European Air War and then Falcon 4 and Total Air War. Go to Page Two
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