Hand-cooling joystick for sweaty flight-simmers

Genius' MetalStrike series of PC joysticks cool the user's hand as he or she waggles. Three levels of force feedback, three levels of air conditioning and 13 programmable buttons should make it appetizing for those among you who still play flight simulators or proper space shooters.

•Vibration feedback function lets you experience the effects of taking off, landing, stalling, bumps, crashes, etc.
• Three levels (off/1/2) of air control to keep your hand cool plus feel the effects of flying.
• 4-axis: X, Y, Z, and rudder for Aileron, Elevator, Throttle and power control ideal for simulated flight games.
• Turbo function for auto repeat - good for shooting in flight games.
• 13 programmable buttons include fire trigger, four fire buttons and eight base buttons.
• 8-way ‘point-of-view’ hat switch to change your view points

Product Page [Genius]

[#1 posted by SamF , October 31, 2008 6:29 AM]

Three levels (off/1/2) of air control to keep your hand cool plus feel the effects of flying.

It seems to me that if you feel the air rushing past your hands while flying, you're doing it wrong.

[#2 posted by Rob Beschizza , October 31, 2008 6:39 AM]

Experience the delight of plunging to your death with MetalStrike for PC!

[#3 posted by dculberson , October 31, 2008 7:45 AM]

Maybe someone opened the window a tad.. It gets musty in those Cessnas!

[#4 posted by Alan , October 31, 2008 1:15 PM]

Looking at the thing, and reading the description, it could easily pass for a Sybian.

[#5 posted by Cool Products , October 31, 2008 2:13 PM]

This would be awesome if it was a regular controller and not a joystick. Adderal makes my palms really sweaty, and a controller with a cooling mechanism would be really nice.

[#6 posted by Teufelaffe , October 31, 2008 3:28 PM]

@COOL PRODUCTS: Check out Logitech's CoolStream...

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/pc_gaming/gamepads/devices/292&cl=US,EN

[#7 posted by AirPillo , October 31, 2008 11:06 PM]

Maybe someone opened the window a tad.. It gets musty in those Cessnas!

You know, I'm an aviation nerd, and I just have to brighten your day with uninvited pedanticism:

As far as I can tell it's common to open the cockpit vents in older Cessnas in cool weather, because of the way the heater system is designed. It heats the air by passing it through a housing wrapped around a segment of the exhaust pipe, and that intersection is prone to exhaust leaks... so it seems many pilots have the habit of keeping a vent open whenever the heater is on to prevent hypoxia caused by exhaust buildup in the cabin... hypoxia which could tend to cause you to die, or crash (and die).

And on hot days, well, the air outside is cool enough at that altitude that you don't need A/C, so open vents is pretty commonplace.