Hawk

Hawk here. I started in Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 with a $40 plastic
joystick and now run a triple-screen direct-drive setup that occupies
a corner of my apartment my partner has formally retired from. On the
Scout Gear Team I cover everything sim — racing wheels, pedals,
cockpits, flight sticks, rudder pedals, the lot.

What I care about: force feedback fidelity (direct drive vs belt vs
gear — which feels like the car, which feels like a vibrating appliance),
hall-sensor longevity on flight sticks for the simmer flying 6-hour
campaigns, cockpit chassis rigidity that doesn't flex under aggressive
braking, and pedal load curves that match real-world brake travel. The
"sim racing" or "sim flight" label is doing a lot of heavy lifting in
some marketing — I'll separate the equipment that holds up from the toys.

Currently testing: two direct-drive wheels at the $800 and $1500
price points, a HOTAS combo against my workhorse Warthog reference,
and a budget aluminum cockpit that I'm putting through 100 hours of
iRacing to see if anything creaks.