The new stick of joy arrived today and I had a sneaky play
If you've seen the reviews then you'll not be surprised to hear that this is a good, well-built, solid joystick that doesn't move in use. I take a medium sized glove and the joystick fits me well. I suspect that if you've got small hands then you may struggle. And also large hands but for an entirely different reason, which I'll go into below.
Handedness - this is very much a right-hander's joystick, not at all suitable for left-hand use.
Stick size and comfort - good for medium sized hands and also large hands, may be a problem for those with small hands.
Button placement - no problem with reach but buttons a bit cramped on the front face of the base, you have to reach under your flying hand to get at those and given there's a potential of 8 functions you may find yourself doing more of this than you would think. The top button (single action) and trigger are easy to reach.
Hat switch - this is a four way hat switch, which is a touch disappointing when coming from an eight way; however the biggest flaw of the hat switch is that the right-hand side is too close to the joystick body and, if used as intended, you find that the body gets in the way of the thumb position. The way around that is to use the left-hand edge of the switch to move it to the right. Not ideal but you do get used to it but those with smaller or larger hands may find the compromise uncomfortable.
Throttle - on the small side but a good smooth action with a reasonable degree of resistance (as you would want it).
Pitch, roll and yaw response - very good, possibly the highlight of this stick. Smooth and with an excellent but unobtrusive return to centre. Makes for good stability in flight.
Button response - good positive action, no dramas.
Overall impression - 7 out of 10. Overall a good joystick but let down by a glaring ergonomic error and other ergonomic compromises due to the shape of the base and position of the buttons. I suspect the problem with the hat switch is the design intent of recreating a WWII KG12 stick. Would I have bought this if I had known about the problem with the hat switch? Probably not and it's a shame that over reviewers haven't highlighted this feature of the stick.