Outside of spending a lot of money on full scale controls, I find the controller I'm using to be very enjoyable. I use a 6 channel USB I-controller (radio control dummy controller) from a well known RC sim company. It is very precise and allows you to do coordinated heli flying in a smooth and exact way. I fly real and rc heli's and it's a blast to do autos with this setup. I myself left the centering spring in because it would be too loose otherwise. In a real heli you get stick shake and, of course, force feedback from the rotors, engine and wind. So the spring at least gives you some resistance. I don't know if anybody else uses these for flight sims but for me it's my favorite to use because of the cost, simplicity and convenience. You can pick them up pretty cheap and once you use it you may never go back to a regular joystick. I use it for all my sims and I love it.
