my three year update on this is that i don’t use my gladiator nxt very much nowadays because the combat flight sim community is full of jingoist imperialist scum (dcs) or literal nazi sympathizers (sturmovik) and there’s no single player campaigns worth playing so you end up engaging with above fascists more than you strictly want to. it’s not exactly motorsport where there’s like an officially benign version of flying that is also competitive, after all… and i’ve never been one for general aviation, they seem mostly like Air Traffic Control simulators to me. and air racing isn’t nearly as much of a thing as motorsport, because i guess plane crashes are a bigger deal than car crashes.
but anyway, much praise to VKB for really embodying modularity - they’ve gone out of their way to make all their new gear modularly-compatible with old gear, so even someone with the old NXT like me can access things like the Modern Combat Grip Ultimate
which was originally designed for the Gunfighter base but they made an adapter to stick it into the Gladiator base. and then you can get their new Twin-Engine throttle, which was long awaited - and they have since renamed to Single/Twin Engine Control System (STECS) - which comes in 4 different varieties compatible with their existing joysticks
and modularity means you can hang a boatload of button boxes and various doohickeys to these guys, even the ones developed for the Gladiator platform, and then use a ‘universal’ mount system to attach all this stuff to your desk.
anyway, i’m not buying any of this stuff because (see aforementioned issues with combat flight sims) but it’s good to know it exists if i ever decide i have too much money. the crazy part is the entry level is WAY cheaper than sim racing hardware, somehow. i guess you don’t need hydraulics or direct-drive motors or anything particularly crazy for airplanes, at least, until you want to start feeling the G-forces.
it was pretty frustrating not having a dedicated throttle control, so i might spring for one if i ever get back into this - even though my interest remains basically just ww2 aircraft.