I am a very unhappy TM warthog owner. The flawed design of the gimbal cannot be corrected. It’s gimbal design shares more in common with an analog thumbstick (i.e., Xbox or PS controller) than anything resembling a flight control mechanism. Perhaps I’m just being picky there.
What cannot be denied is the abhorrent build quality and overall design. I have years of experience as a V&V engineer so this is precisely my area of expertise. The gimbal mechanism is injection molded and not properly finished. It’s surface is not smooth and has what is called flash; material that flows out of the cavity where the two mold halves meet. This can results in what the community has dubbed “Stiction”. Google it.
The throttle levers are very flimsy, are made of plastic and have only a thin metal veneer.Yet the throttle weighs nearly 10 pounds due to the steel ballast affixed to the upper side of the bottom cover plate.
Switches on the throttle and stick are of the lowest possible quality. Buttons are extremely cheap membrane switches that frequently fail open or closed.
I would gladly take analog potentiometers over TM’s “H.E.A.R.T.” hall sensors in the throttle if the cost would allow something resembling a quality switch or button .
Look at the stickied posts on various flight simulator forums showing how many TM customers have had total main board failures for the throttles. My throttle is now on that list, despite following TM’s absurd instructions to plug the throttle in after PC start up. Why does no other USB device have such problems? Yet Thrustmaster Support continues to manufacture this product with a known flaw and when the failure occurs immediately they will offer sell you a replacement for $60. If you’re lucky enough to have it fail within the warranty, they will still send you a replacement board that you must replace yourself.
Look at all the forum posts where customers have had switch failures.
Take all the 5 star reviews you see with a HUGE grain of salt. Initially you may be pleased with this HOTAS but inevitably switches and buttons WILL fail. The throttle main board will likely fail sometime after two years.
