The Lancair Columbia 300 and IV-P both use a simple joystick for pitch and roll control. The joystick is mounted on the left side of the cockpit so it can only be used with the left hand. Both of those planes have pretty high performance. The Columbia 300 has a max cruise speed on 179 knots (206 MPH) and the IV-P cruises at 291 knots (335 MPH). There's even a turboprop version of the IV-P that cruises at more than 370 MPH. All of these planes have light control forces due to good design. Designing controls is an integral part of the engineering process. As with any high performance plane, proper use of the trim tabs is essential but that's just a matter of piloting technique.

Lancair isn't the only company producing planes with side mounted control sticks. Cirrus makes the high performance SR-20 and SR-22 designs with side stick-type controls, too. Several smaller homebuilts like the BD-5 (including the BD-5 jet) and BD-17 also use side sticks. Others, like the Velocity XL have center mounted control sticks that allow for right-hand operations. All of these planes use conventional mechanical control linkages and fly quite well.