So I’ve been visiting RTC Denpasar twice, annoying my friend about twice a week for three weeks, and scouring the interwebs to get a hold of this:
Sadly, nobody had it. Word is that the supply was halted from I don’t know where. Bottom line is that there is no telling when a resupply would take place.
A couple of friends suggested some other series that I might be interested in, particularly from Genius. I wasn’t interested, because I had no knowledge of the product quality. Yokes from Saitek were also offered, but they were way beyond my price range. A few days later I found Attack 3 at an online store and I immediately ordered it. Sadly, it was out of stock, too, and the warehouse admin probably forgot to update its status on the page. The sales guy offered to bump it up a class and I only had to add about $16 for it, so I said sure. So this is what I got:
This baby fails in one requirement I made for myself: it is not ambidextrous. I thought I was gonna have some problems flying with my right hand, because (1) I’m left-handed and (2) I couldn’t access the mouse while I played. As it turns out, my right hand works just fine. I guess the same thing happened when I first learned to use the mouse with my right hand, to save everybody the trouble of providing a left-handed mouse. And the mouse, it turns out I didn’t need it so bad, and whenever I needed it I could always revert to using the trackpad with my left hand, which was free anyway.
So there you have it, my new joystick. I’ve flown a couple of times using it on 737s, 747s, Cessnas, various vintage planes, and even an F-14. I’ve also managed to land a 737 manually in a crosswind, not to mention F-14 night landings (which were particularly hard because of the high approach speed). I’m overall satisfied, and although I do hope that someday I’ll have my own virtual cockpit, this little guy is more than enough for now.