Hey Stogy I have the same flight stick as you. Works great for the price I paid for it.
I think the issue your talking about is the same one I was experiencing where all of a sudden I would have no input from the controller.....only mouse and keyboard bindings would work. Its a known issue with a ton of people complaining about the same thing with different flight controllers.
So far what I have found is that as long as I have my keybindings figured out before our game time, as long as I launch the game with the flight stick plugged in and DON"T open the keybindings config during our session it works 100% fine. If I open the menu and go into the options at all, it will lose "connection" and become nothing more then a paper weight.
So best thing to do is plug in the stick and go into the single player heli showcase and setup your controls and keybindings the way you like them. When we have game nights, launch with the controller plugged in and remember to not open the menu screen where the key bindings are. So far this has worked 100% for me.
Another thing I can't do is disconnect the flight stick from the usb and plug it back in during the same mission. For whatever reason "in-game" it won't reconnect or recognize the controller again.
I think someone on here mentioned that windows 10 has corrected this issue which makes sense because from what I have read on the bohemia forums it is a known "deep seated" issue with windows that was causing this problem.
Anyways you should plug in and try it out and see if that helps.
Ghost