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I do not play many simulators; Ive got DCS but havent spent a penny on other planes, and Elite: Dangerous keeps flowing out of my brain like mud. But what I do play is a lot of Arma 3. If you're not familiar, Arma is a long standing combined arms simulator, geared towards mainly infantry and vehicle combat, but including - in descending levels of complexity - helicopters and fixed wing aircrafts running from quadcopter drones to cargo liners. Arma's flight model is simplified, but the dynamics are complex enough to keep me engaged. You can, and many have and will continue to, fly purely with keyboard and mouse, and prove perfectly adequate for the task at hand. At most, experienced players will recommend getting some form of headtracking and maybe some foot pedals. The fact that I choose to fly with a full HOTAS rig, cobbled together from various second-hand goods, is a statement on how immersive I enjoy the experience and time and practice ive put in to mastering those tools, how I use the enhanced inputs to fully express the abilities of the chosen craft, and the modularity of Arma's controller input schemes. Turtle Beach's Velocity One flight stick was the first piece of actually brand new kit ive bought for this setup, replacing a venerable Saitek ST290 PRO flight stick which was celebrating its second decade of use, pairing with a CH PRO Throttle I acquired second hand and a Logitech MOMO racing setup from a chance Goodwill find granting me superior driving and analog yaw controls. This decision was not made blind, I had seen several reviews of the stick and the more I learned about its capabilities, the more I came to appreciate how perfectly suited it was for my particular game of choice. Out of the box, this flight stick has a USB A-C cable with a basic strap for bundling, and it hooked straight in to my computer and installed everything needed with no issue. A review had mentioned a possible firmware update requiring the joystick to be set in Xbox mode, but that has yet to pass - or maybe its from a later batch, Im not certain. Booting Arma up, I was pleased to discover that every button (somewhere just shy of 40 inputs!) on this stick was detected; the Xbox logo now starts my engines, the left throttle and its detents go to flaps, the right for airbrake. The base buttons go to controls I previously had to squeeze down to the keyboard for; inventory, MFD cycling, and  a helpful pairing of the bottom two as my new Eject combo. The mousewheel, once configured, serves as the AddAction menu selector, something I previously had to tie to my hatswitch on my old stick. For those not in the know - the addAction menu is Arma's dated context menu, allowing for changing ammo types, boarding and dismounting vehicles, placing and detonating explosives... its a bit clunky but work is being made to replace it in future titles. Access to this menu is crucial, as not everything on it can be bound to a specific key, nor did I have enough keys previously to bind them all at hand. The right thumb control on top is actually a mini-joystick, and this is insanely handy for fliers; in Arma, youre normally expected to fly with your mouse... but if you look into your targeting pod, it takes control of the mouse input. You can still guide the plane with crude WADS inputs. If you have just a joystick, you can still smoothly fly, but then youll be juggling between the mouse to look around and joystick to guide your plane - unmanageable. Having a mini-joystick on the controls allows you to control the camera while maintaining full flight control. *Granted*, the CH PRO throttle has a stick on it I was already using for this purpose, but if youre not flying full HOTAS or dont have one on your throttle, this is a welcome addition. The touchpad mouse control... exists. The LCD screen in the device is ??useful?? I suppose. The timer native to it was handy when I was recording an operation as it meant I got a live timer in front of me to reference time stamps, but the feedback for everything else is not terribly necessary. Still, being able to adjust settings native to the controller rather than an app is handy. The stick itself is nice and responsive and relatively comfortable to use for multiple-hour sessions. The adjustable rest gives you a range of options for where your hand lies. The base is very wide which gives great stability on the roll, and while relatively short on the other side, its enough to keep any tipping from happening in normal use. The plastic feet give more than enough grip to any useable surface.

Responsive, feels nice, easy setup.