Nothing beats

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick

shell out the $50, and get it. Highest compatability rate with nearly all pc games ever made, amazing force feedback, sturdy as hell, works without extra drivers on any version of windows.

(You can get the force feedback 1, not 2 for cheaper, but vista7x64 doesnt support midi port, period, usb to midi\gameport adapters wont work for the feedback effect of the original, so just get force feedback 2)

Just saw this thread. If your running XP and have a Xbox Steel battalion controller lying around, i find it to be absolutely amazing. Two joysticks, a throttle, and 30-40 switches. and all of them work. The only gripe i have about it is that the main flight stick doesn't auto center.

That sounds incredible!

Okay I have to admit, these would be pretty cool :)

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steel_Battalion_controllers.jpg]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steel_Battalion_controllers.jpg[/url]

I haven't actually tried my Steel Battalion controller yet, but primarily because VTCHID was never updated for Vista/Win7 64-bit. (On the other hand, there's my XP-era classic gaming PC that could still easily handle I-War 2 maxed and likely have less problems with the first game...)

That said, I could see it working out for I-War if you can get over the right stick's lack of centering spring. Thumbstick to slide up/down/left/right, left stick to roll, right stick to pitch/yaw, two pedals for forward/back thruster override (I'm not quite sure what I'd use the third for, perhaps LDS), and enough other buttons and switches to cover just about everything else. Only thing that might be tricky is the hat switch menu, but a lot of that is used for things you could just bind directly to a button.

Also, if you want something more portable, I would actually find both games to be quite playable with nothing more than a 3Dconnexion device configured to work just right. Full 6DoF control on one hand, a whole keyboard's worth of controls on the other. (I wouldn't think it's enough for any other flight stick-centric game, though; at least I-War gives you auto-aim on the PBCs by default. If you want to play other things, consider picking up a SWFFB2 on eBay for $50 or less, if you can.)