Hi, i’m the OP and i’m happy to give my feedback after 3 years of use.
Now bear in mind that
1. I’m not really a power user. I use it only for BMS and have been on and off BMS for periods of months.
2. I can’t compare to other hardware as i never touched them.
Let’s recap a quick review i gave in another thread, shortly after purchase:
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T.16000M Stick
The stick is good. I won’t go into details, as you can find plenty of general reviews on the net. Just concerning my main criteria, the center-point and overall precision, it beats my previous cheap joystick by far. It has no noticable dead-zone at all. It is relatively stiff and there is a notable resistance from the opposite side when passing through the center point, but from a value-readout point of view you don’t notice and that’s exactly what you want imo.
The base is surprisingly big. A bit too much imo. Especially since you don’t really need that much buttons (12) on the base.
It’s also quite heavy. There must be some metal plate in it. Doesn’t move on the desk.
The top stick button below the hat is difficult to reach because it isn’t on the “thumb arc” like the other buttons. The top button layout is worse than my previous stick tbh.
FCWS Throttle
Also good. Smooth throttle axis. Good arrangement of the buttons and plenty of. Perceived quality is OK.
The top right side POV hat is the one most naturally attainable, but since the hat has a symmetric shape, it is sometimes difficult to hit a direction without hitting the adjacent diagonal. So it’s better not to map this to critical stuff.
Mixed feelings for the front analog ministick. This one has an important dead-zone around center and only limited precision. It took me a while to effectively slew radar cursors with it. I had to reduce its sensitivity slightly or even map it to buttons entirely.
Now after 3 years of use, i can say the following:
Overall i am very satisfied with my buy. Especially since i bought before the recent HOTAS price surge. (Got the T.16000M+FCWS bundle in a sale for less than 100 Euros)
Concerning the T.16000M Stick:
Precision and stiffness feels still the same after 3 years of use. No noticeable wear whatsoever.
Still very happy with the mechanical part.
From ergonomics point of view i would have loved to have at least one more hat switch on the stick instead of on the throttle.
FCWS Throttle:
Here it is another matter. It is a known issue that the throttle will start to grip after only several months of use. The factory-lubricant is crap. But it can be handled by replacing the grease at the right places. (Youtube is your friend). No need to buy the much hyped Nyogel 767 - i have achieved satisfactory results with a much cheaper Liqui Moly 3312 silicon grease.
Also confirmed that the frontal analog ministick is really bad and feels getting worse over time.
I’d still give it a solid buy recommendation for more casual simmers after 3 years of use.
