I bought the MHG because it generally is designed very well in terms of layout and because I thought it would fit my profile very well. I mainly do helicopter simulation -since last holiday season with the AB9 and an extension rod. I am very satisfied with that, but sadly not at all with the MHG, because it is too small! The parts of the grip that your hand actually covers feels like it is meant for older kids or petite women. The “neck” between the head with the buttons and the main “stick” where the palm rests (so the space between thumb and index finger) is very narrow, which makes you feel you are handling a toy, rather than a serious sim hardware.
And no, I am a regular 40yo european guy of absolutely regular size, with average to slightly bigger hands. I am not an American basketball player or anything like that.
Another major problem is that all the above leaves little space for the thumb to rest comfortably in between the thumb hat switch and the button head. You kind of have to rest the thumb onto the hat switch, but it has pointy edges, making it uncomfortable! I even tried to improve this with a 3D printed button, that helps! But as delivered this is a showstopper for me.
I am positively impressed by the bigger buttons and how they retreat when clicking. Only the pinky button is, again, positioned to fit a person with small hands. That wouldn’t be a big issue by itself, if the button would be smooth, so you slide about it with the ring finger and pinky, but sadly it also is uncomfortable and kind of in the way.
For the price and the kind of plastic fabrication used I think you made a good stick for the price (without the 40 bucks shipping I had to pay)! But I misjudged the proportions on the photos.
For reference: I used the Virpil Constellation Alpha R before and wanted to exchange it for the MHG to a) be fully compatible on the AB9 (which didn’t give me much of an advantage, for example XPlane still messed up the button recognition, with hat switches not being recognized in the same hat section) and b) in the hopes that the thumb rest hat switch would be more reliable than on the Alpha. I was disappointed on all accounts and proceeded to modify my VP Alpha successfully with a better button on the thumb rest. You might dismiss this as the Alpha and the MHG aren’t meant to compete (I guess) but take note that I don’t use much of the features the Alpha has over the MHG (the brake lever and the trigger “safety”) and both are some kind of plastic. Yet the Alpha feels simply heavier and more like a proper grip, not a toy. Maybe that helps. In general I would advise to think of another flagship grip as I had a F16 grip once and I think it is not for everyone by design. I know Winwing and TM also run with it, I don’t understand it there either (besides attracting the milsim crowd).
