logitech Pro Flight X56 Rhino HOTAS

I upgraded from a Saitek X-45 that had been getting me by for several years. The x-56 is definitely a major evolution. I never really liked the X-52 they produced, it looked/felt cheap and gimmicky but the x-56 is definitely not cheap or gimmicky. It's a very solid piece of gear that has nice weight and placement of controls (I'm 6' 2" with average sized hands for a man).Throttle cluster:----------------------------------------1) The throttle cluster was a little stiff from the factory, however, that's actually a good thing. Other reviews have talked about having to shove it around to "loosen it up"/etc, I find that I really dislike a very "loose" throttle. I fly helicopter/flight/space sims and I appreciate some throttle resistance so it doesn't go flopping around. It does have a tension adjustment that may be useful years down the road, but overall it is very nice. All of the base toggle switches, mode switch, and rotaries on the base are backlit by LED's.2) On the base of the unit, there are 7 momentary toggle switches that have two positions (up/down) and the resting neutral position. Having these toggle switches has been a massive upgrade and I've mapped everything from landing gear to fuel/cargo scoops (in elite dangerous) to many other key functions. They are crisp, solid metal, and the switches themselves feel quite solid and have a very nice heft to them when engaging them. In addition to the 7 toggle switches, there are two dial type potentiometers on the base (rotary dials) that also work/feel quite solid.3) The right portion of the main throttle half has 2 metal rotary dials that spin freely throughout their rotation and have a centering detent/click and they can be pushed down/clicked as well. They are large and easy to reach with either your forefinger or in the case of the lower one, your thumb. The two hat switches on the lower right of this half of the throttle are easily reached by your thumb and have distinct profiles so they feel different to your thumb without having to look at them. There is a slider type switch and a square and very flat button on this half of the throttle as well. The slider on this half has a very short range of motion and is easily reached by your thumb.There is also a mouse-stick type device which is also easily reached by your thumb and works very well for something like free-look or other tasks. The mouse-stick is plastic, but it is well positioned, and the return spring is just the right mix of firm/easy that you don't keep accidentally moving it around and can be pushed down/clicked also.4) The left portion of the main throttle half has a rotating dial with an infinite range forward/back that has a detent/click that stops the rotation of it in small increments. This will be familiar to anyone who has a mouse wheel that doesn't just freely spin, but rather clicks forward/backward a small amount as you rotate it. This is quite useful for scroll type menus or for doing something like cycling through a targets subsystems in Elite Dangerous for example. It is metal, feels solid, and is easily reached by your pinkie while your palm rests on the throttle. This half also has a single slider type toggle switch with two positions(up/down) and a resting neutral that is easily reached by your right finger.5) The two throttle halves can be locked together and move as one, or, unlocked from each other and manipulated completely separately and as I mentioned in the opening, have a very nice feel in terms of resistance to both of them.6) There is a 3 position mode switch that is vastly superior to all previous versions of their products. It's a Very solid 3 position rotary that requires deliberate intent to manipulate and has a very satisfying stop on each position. I really disliked the "mode" switch on the x-45 as it was extremely sloppy and would often get stuck between modes and require a lot of futzing with.7) The base is solid and on a normal desk it won't go sliding all over the place as you move the throttle or engage the controls.Stick:-----------------------------------1) There are three hat type controls and a button switch on the upper sloped face of the stick. All are extremely unique in terms of feel and easily reached by your thumb from a normal resting/use position on the stick. They all have a very satisfying and positive feedback in terms of their engagement of the various positions and require deliberate effort to engage; they won't be flopping around or accidentally bumped into a different position like some cheaper controllers. The two hat switches on the right are standard 4 position hats while the one on the left is an 8 position. These are all plastic, but, solid and well made. All of the buttons/hats on this front slope are back-lit by LED's.2) On the left side of the shaft is a mouse-stick type control that is plastic, well positioned and easy to manipulate with your thumb, with a firm return spring that requires deliberate effort to manipulate, this also wont be flopping around and randomly engaging even when you are dodging/juking your hardest trying to escape getting gunned down or, chasing that pirate back to wherever he was hiding. This can also be pushed down/clicked as another button, and I've also mapped this to various functions in the games I play.3) The main fire switch is solid, thick, well made, and is in a natural position to be used.4) On the right side of the sloped face, there is a button that is easily reached by your index finger.5) There are two pinkie accessible switches. One is a standard button, while the other is a paddle type switch. They are both easily reached, make sense in terms of placement, and work very well.6) The stick comes with a sort of spacer that you can put where the edge of your hand would rest on the base if you like a larger table/surface for it to rest on and for me, is very nice to have.7) The stick comes with 3 extra springs of different weights so you can adjust the force required to move the main stick around. I tried them all, and ended up going back to the default spring as it felt the best to me but it is nice to have options should you want to change it up to suit a particular app/situation.8) The base is solid and on a standard desk it will not go sliding all around even when you are dodging/juking away from or after a target.The software/drivers:---------------------------------------------------1) I'm running 64 bit windows 10, and both the drivers and the programming software installed in just a few seconds with zero issues.2) The programming software allows you to change the color of ALL of the LED backlighting for the stick/throttle through an infinite range. It presents you with a standard gradient/intensity color picker and you can then set that color for the LED's. Set it to blood-red and hop in a tie-fighter. Crank it to a nice shade of green and cruise around in the plane of your choice. I spent several minutes just playing around with all kinds of colors/intensities just for fun.3) the programming software lets you change how the response curves work for certain ranges of motion, how big the "deadzone" is, and a bunch of other parameters. I haven't really found a use for that, but, I'm sure there are some who would appreciate the customization.4) Sometimes, windows thinks one or more axis' of your controller is not "centered"/etc and you end up spinning around in whatever vehicle you are flying. On older sticks (including my x-45) you could actually be stuck with that, with no way to set the "zero" of that axis due to quirks either in software or windows itself and you may have had to hold that axis manually at a certain point that it thought it was zeroed, talk about annoying! On the x-56, there is an actual reset procedure that entails holding down odd combinations of buttons then unplugging/replugging/re-calibrating that actually fixes all of that type of issue. I mention this because I had this issue with my X-56 after unboxing, where windows and some games thought one axis wasn't centered and no matter what I did in the windows controller "calibration" fixed it. The manual reset procedure DID and I was off into the unknown of space.I spent quite a while reading reviews/etc before buying and was a bit worried I would experience some of the odd problems some folks have mentioned such as pressing one button which causes one or more others to engage/etc.I have experienced none of this and all of the controls work just perfectly. I don't want to invalidate someone elses' experience they may have had, but, for me this controller set has been 100% problem free and works flawlessly.Overall, this is definitely a very solid controller, with well placed controls that are not cheaply made that all have good solid positive engagement characteristics. To be clear, when I describe the controls as requiring deliberate effort to engage, I do not mean it takes massive effort to make them work, but rather they aren't like some cheap versions on other sticks where if you sneeze at them they move around.You WANT controls that require deliberate effort to engage, unless you like slamming into a space-station because you mapped the fine landing thrust controls to a cheaply made hat/stick that engages if you breathe in their general direction.Yes, the controls are in a different position to your last controller, just like the case would be if you got into a different model plane/helicopter/etc; this is not a problem or drawback, but simply your new layout and will require time to acclimate to.I've had dozens of joystick/controller/etc over the past 15+ years and of all of them, I am enjoying the X-56 the most. It's got enough weight to be satisfying, well placed controls, a good layout and great customization/programming options.

I've had this for about 3 months and no problems with the hardware at all.The throttle is a bit sticky, even at the lowest resistance setting, but it isn't that big of a deal for me.One VERY IMPORTANT thing: I use this with Windows 10. EVERY TIME I reboot my computer, the driver gets screwed up and either the X, Y, or Z axis on the joystick either stops responding or is just pinned maxed out to one direction or the other. Unplugging the joystick and plugging it back in does not fix this. I've seen several negative reviews for this product complaining about this very thing. Logitech / Saitek suggested to uninstall / reinstall the driver & software, which will fix it, but that is not necessary.Here is what you need to do to fix it quick, without renstalling anything:1. Open the configuration software and go into the settings (not programming) section for the joystick.2. Click "calibrate axis". Sometimes this is all you need to do. Check the movement & centering in the settings for all three axis. If it's moving as it should, you're done. If not, go to step 3.3. If you have an axis that is still not moving as it should, with that axis selected, change the Deadband setting by 1 and click "Apply". (I usually have my Deadband set to 50, so I'll adjust it to 51.) Repeat this for all axis that aren't working as expected.That *should* fix the joystick axis and keep your vessel from constant vomit inducing spinning. Occasionally though, the axis curve will also get screwed up. This is pretty uncommon, but I have had it happen. For the joystick, you most likely (unless you have a ship you just want turning in one direction) want an increasing S curve profile (straight line from bottom left to top right). Select the diagonal left-to-right S curve (just above the apply button). This will reset your Deadband, so you'll want to set that back to whatever you want, then hit apply.I hope that A) this helps out anyone else experiencing this problem (It took me several days & many hours of messing around to figure this out, so hopefully it saves someone some time), and B) that Logitech FIXES THIS STUPID BUG! It's really irritating to have to do this every single time Microsoft decides Windows must install updates and restart the computer, against my wishes.