Joystick recommendations?

[PvK]

I inherited a Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital joystick from my dad quite a few years ago. It's big and heavy but has several programmable buttons and a "hat" control and a throttle slider (which works alright but is sort of a weak point). It works fine in Win98SE and I have no real complaints. It worked well with Independence War (fairly complex starship sim), combat flight sims, and I even had decent success using it with Need for Speed (car racing game) with it. It seems quite durable. Has a trigger and was a mass-produced model so I imagine it can still be found cheaply (e.g. I see one on eBay for $9.99).

[Atrocities]

I miss my Microsoft joystick. IT was a good joystick.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Semi-OT: I am thinking about getting into flight sims. So far the only sim games I have played are racing on the PS2. Fun but consoles only seem to provide half the thrill of a computer game. Well, for obvious reasons though. Anyway what joystick and flight sim would any of you recommend?