I wanted to say that I'm quite happy with my Rift.
Despite the problem, that landing pad numbers are only readable within a range of 1km or so ...
Then I tested some HOTAS systems.
The TFlight4 was really ok at the beginning, very beginner friendly. Almost perfectly placed buttons, though not very few. But plastic toy and gets sweaty almost instantly after you grab it. After a month, the stick started to wobble around like hell (also in null-position). Flying straight forward? not possible anymore. Also, the stick creaks like a squirrel.
The x56 has a nice rubber surface, no sweaty feeling at all. But, Stick has a high clearance. About a range of 1 cm where nothing happens when you move the stick. Yaw axis is hard to move. Throttle is way harder (in the lightst friction setting); also it's sometimes hard (when long not used) and goes lighter if heavy-used. Bad for combat. Switches on the Throttle base are ok. Buttons on throttle are also hard to hit, sometimes you don't really know if it worked because of ambiguous feedback.
The Warthog. Yes baby. That's a Stick. Well, at least at the first impression. The industrial switches have drawbacks. They're not as accurate as the x56 ones. It seems they're designed to be hammered on, with metal gloves on. Overall construction is not very accurate (had problems to reconnect the dual-throttle together, hole not really matching the stick).
The plastic heads on the switches make them feel wobbly and inaccurate. Especially the default "thruster back"-switch. I still don't know if that switch has 2 or 3 states or if the plastic head just overshoots the switch.
Some buttons (like the gray SILENCE) are so hard to push, I hesitate to set functions used on a regular basis.
Throttle legs feel kind of fragile (can move it sideways, ugh).
Missing yaw axis, can handle that. I've set the thumb-axis to yaw, which I'm yet to get used to. I ordered the Saitek combat rudder pedals. Will see how it goes. But the Throttle moves very nice, waaay better than the x56.
The Stick. Heavy, good. Precise, yes. But. The Stick sometimes / sporadically is a little bit left-oriented. So, when I do nothing (null-position), the ship is rolling leftwards a little bit. Is that normal? Or did I've got a monday device? Thinkin' about RMA'ing .
After all, I'm yet to decide between x56 and Warthog. The x56 seemed to be made especially for Elite, while the Warthog more for DCS/A10.
I am surprised that I am disappointed of the Warthog. And I'm disappointed that I'm disappointed