I have a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. Unfortunately, after upgrading to Windows 7, the force feedback part doesn't work anymore. Now it just slops around with no tactile center. I haven't been able to give ground instruction on a flight simulator since this upgrade. This is terribly disappointing since the operating system upgrade was done by Microsoft, and the hardware made obsolete by the same company now makes it more or less useless.

What I would really like is a force feedback joystick that closely represents the style of control column you see in real life gliders. Something that doesn't sit on a table, but is positioned on a chair, and be grabbed in the customary fashion that a normal flight control stick is grasped. And something with a mini-throttle built in that I could use as a trim-tab. I don't need all those 85 buttons and control hat that all the modern joysticks have.