CH Products F16 Fighterstick by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson
	Early this year CH released their new F16 Fighterstick. It seems much longer than that, but I suspect it was indeed this year. In any case, the stick incorporates the advertised features, and makes a very nice pair with the Pro Throttle. The Fighterstick, unlike the Combatstick, is able to stand on its own, being programmable without the Pro Throttle. The Fighterstick has four 4-way hat switches, three buttons and the trigger. If you have the Pro Throttle you simply connect the Fighterstick's joystick connector directly to it. When connected like this the stick is programmed through the Pro Throttle. This can be a bit disconcerting if you have been used to TM gear, because TM gear makes the throttle the slave unit. If you don't have a Pro Throttle, better run out and buy one! Lets face it, you've bought the Fighterstick because you are serious about sims. If you are going to try to get into imf22 or EF2000 or SU27 with only a stick, you are going to find yourself severely limited. Add the Pro Throttle to the Fighterstick and you have a complete HOTAS: you will have all the control you need at your fingertips. Its the ONLY way to go!! Ok, lets say you haven't got the cash yet, and here you are! Then plug the joystick connector to your game card, then plug in the detachable keyboard connector to your keyboard input. Next take your keyboard plug and connect it to the other end of the Fighterstick's keyboard adapter. Now you're ready to roll! On its own its the programming task is easy. Just press the button or hat position you want to memorize then type or use your mouse to select the function from the graphical display of the keyboard. Until now you had to do this all in DOS, but CH recently released their beta software to allow for programming in WIN95. You can use the Fighterstick in either chorded or discrete mode. The chorded mode allows you to press a button or hat at the same time (from the idea of the musical chord where two or more keys combine to make a different sound). I'm not sure where this is terribly useful. The discrete mode, on the other hand, is what we usually think of as a single keypress to accomplish a single function. You can still press two buttons at the same time, where a game or sim will allow you to access two functions simultaneously. Click to continue		The Fighterstick will emulate a Combatstick or CH Flightstick Pro. This can be useful in some instances, but more likely you bought it because you can program it for whatever output you want. The beauty of CH gear is its ease of use in this area. When compared to Thrustmaster CH allows less flexibility in programming, but it is also much easier to program as a result, CS Commander notwithstanding. I'm not certain of CH plans in the paper manual department, but be warned that until recently their sticks came only with an online manual. This can be quite a pain, even though the interface is quite easy to use. True, you can print the whole thing out, but if you are like me, you are very resistant to that use of paper. And where are you going to file the pile anyway? Ok, we made it this far, now let me tell you the test system for this stick. I tried it with and without the Pro Throttle on both my PPro 180 (Supermicro) and my AMD K6 (FIC mainboard). I hooked up my CH pedals without incident, and tried the stick in Janes Longbow, ATF, EF2000 v.2.0, and iMagics F16 beta. A few comments on feel. I have been alternating primarily between my SUNCOM F15 Talon and my Thrustmaster F22 Pro. (Yes, I do feel spoiled!) The base of the stick is larger than the Combatstick, which is a plus for stability, but the feel is very similar. The grip feels good, and tension is just about right. I think I've lost some objectivity here since my F22 Pro provides enough tension to support a small truck. Note that the single most significant difference between this stick and the Combatstick is that the F16 Fighterstick will stand alone, and is programmable without the Pro Throttle. So if you ARE on a tight budget but want programmability, you can start with the Fighterstick, have access to 19 functions, and later add the throttle. Nice! All in all, the stick is a good one, and I don't think anyone would ever regret the purchase. The only thing out there to rival it is SUNCOMS' F15 Talon, but until they release their throttle, what's a guy gonna do? F16 Fighterstick, of course!
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