I was under the impression you read that post of his wrong, that’s why i was like “wait m8, he’s still waiting, nothing is cancelled just yet”. Then again, there’s nothing saying that he’ll be upto scrap anytime soon, but one thing is for sure in Russel’s history: he loves flightsimming as much as we do.
So my gut is telling me, he’s not finished just yet… but at least you’ll have the yoke assembly once it hits the market?
Well, the program has an icon which starts up MSFS automatically. (at least, my version is the digital Microsoft store version) Is that what you mean with Fast start?
But, according to N6722C XPF:
“Comes with a very responsive developer, and frequent FREE updates and improvements.”
So i’m sure that Dev is skulking around here somewhere… No clue who it is though.
And yeah, kinda odd to start a new “we want FFB”-thread… but i’m pretty sure both topics are going to be merged soon, once the forum manager sniffs it out 
Kindest Regards,
Steiny