That's great for the Flight Simulator fans :)

This joystick is equiped with 6 buttons, 3 directional axis, one trotle axis and an 8-way 'Point-of-view' Hat Switch.

The design is interesting, with a big base that provides a very good adherence.
The buttons have a very short course, providing a very fast response, a good feature when you're hunting another plane.

It's made of opaque black and silver plastic, very pleasant to touch.

The axis have a medium stroke, with a precise response to the movement.
The planes that sometimes don't like to obey :D

Well, the third axis (X) was new for me, it's very usefull to control the rudder, a good alternative for the airplane pedals, and much better than control the rudder by the keyboard.
I thought this axis with a short stroke, although the wrist movement is limited.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7364/img3913vou0.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3913vou0.jpg) http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1613/img3914yh0.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3914yh0.jpg)

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6956/img3915vd8.th.jpg (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3915vd8.jpg)

The trotle is nice, is seems to have a hidraulic shock, it's neither soft or hard, it's perfectly balanced.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6789/img3910ah0.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3910ah0.jpg)

An interesting feature:

It's ambidextrous, deataching one piece you can change the hand used to hold and even ajust it for a big or a small hand.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/686/img3921kk4.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3921kk4.jpg) http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2717/img3912wb3.th.jpg (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3912wb3.jpg)

The point of vew hat switch is more important according to the game.
In air combat it is very usefull, you can search your enemies almost everywere, just like a real pilot do, but in civilian simulators it's not so usefull, and at least in FS2009 it sometimes perturbs more than helps.

The software configuration is extremelly hard, just plug it into an USB port and play ^^
It's self calibrated and don't need drivers (at least for XP).

There's a picture of it's cable:

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4454/img3919hx7.th.jpg (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3919hx7.jpg)

Note: this bed is 7 feet lenghted.

Another good feature it the weight: very low, almos the same as a 10 CDs pack. The problem is to transport it, because the base is large and not datachable..

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/519/img3916bz8.th.jpg (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3916bz8.jpg) http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7458/img3917tn8.th.jpg (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3917tn8.jpg) http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1821/img3918qy0.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3918qy0.jpg)

Very good product, approved !

Tested with Flight Simulator 2003 (FS9), IL-2 Sturmkovick and IL-2 1946.

Manufacturer Site (http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/st290pro.htm)

YouTube - Saitek ST 290 demonstration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neI6YWV7VeA)