Saitek Cyborg F.L.Y 5 Flight Stick

Perfect while it works, but – The FLY 5 joystick for me was a excellent option at it's price point. It's durability however leaves a lot to be desired. I've owned a FLY 5 for a total of 2 months now, I say one, the first one has already been sent back and the replacement posted back today. The Good Great Design, button's throttle everything is in easy reach. It's configurable for different sized hands/grips etc.

It has plenty of buttons

Split Throttle with reasonable feel.

The Bad

Build Quality, it's made of tinsel.

Spring Creak and uneven resistance on the stick.

No easy stick to desk option so it floats a bit.

This would be the perfect budget stick if only it was built from something stronger than tinsel. Both of my sticks broke within a fortnight of normal use. ie they weren't hit thrown or treated in any way roughly.

The four buttons around the head are made from cheap plastic with approx 1mm holding them on, they break very easily.

I really wanted to like this stick but it's simply not worth the purchase price as it can only seem to last about 1 month basic use.

Different, not necessarily better – I bought this as a birthday present to myself as an upgrade from the Saitek Cyborg Evo force feed back flight stick. The buttons all work really well and give plenty of flexibility for programming. The setup software proved difficult to get from Saitek which sent you in a loop and I ended up going via the MadCatz site. I like that the adjustability of the hand size actually lengthens the grip, whereas the Evo moved your hand up the stick by moving a rest.

With a light base it can tilt forwards on the desk when needing full forward stick, and you need to push downwards slightly to prevent this. It has taken me a while to get used to the flex in the stick, that is caused by the 3 separate adjustments between the base and the buttons. While the buttons and hat switch can be adjusted for reach from your hand and the whole top can be rotated towards or from you, this section cannot be rotated sideways like on the Evo. I think this is a step backwards. While having all the buttons on the stick and the left of the base is great for me, this stick is not ambidextrous and the grip makes it a right handers only.

Overall a good flight stick, not sure if it is an improvement on the Evo. Buttons all in easy reach (if you are right handed), dual throttles, adjustibility Top cannot rotate sideways, no good for flying left handed