Hate to be a sourpuss

[bolox]

OK, I deleted the control axis for the single throttle. It was, of course, unplugged as well. I had calibrated my throttle quadrant. I tried it against the test gauges in Controls with my previous settings for it---all were a big 0.

well of course they would be if you have assigned controls with one set of controls plugged in, then unplug /replug another controller in the 'numbering of joysticks can/will be altered and thus you may/will get zero response.
See my post #6 here
http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.co...ead.php?t=4635
This could also explain the lack of bomb dropping- you assign a DX button, not a keyboard emulation key through CH manager? - if the joystick numbering changes and bomb drop is a DX key this would explain the 'no bomb drop'

I attempted to re-log the levers into Control Axis, and the setting for the single CH throttle immediately popped into the window before I could move a throttle lever. .

this indicates (to me at least) that there is some 'noise' on the CH throttle axis that is picked up when you try to assign axes.
Can you please confirm that Anthropomorphic Control is NOT ticked in the realism settings as Hugso suggests- this really can screw things up particularly with any noisy controllers.

I am curious, has anybody been able to get a throttle quadrant, CH or other, to work in this game?

I do not own any CH gear, but I'm pretty certain that people have used these with CoD, and I know several people use Saitek throttle quadrants (3 axis) with no problems.
I also did a test last night using one of my custom controllers, assigning 2 axes as throttles#1, & #2 and they worked fine ingame.

Again can I remind you that you MUST hit APPLY for any assignments to work ingame. They will work perfectly in the bars in the assignment screen but if you hit BACK they will revert to the previous setup and thus NOT work ingame.

Can I suggest this as a plan of attack:-
1) make a backup of all the ini files in 'Docs/il2 sturmovic cliffs of dover' in particular ConfUser.ini (a very apt name). MAKE SURE ANTHROPOMOPHIC CONTROLS is NOT ticked in realism settings.
2)start with one fixed joystick setup (no plugging/unplugging until you get one plane/setup working right)
3) go to controls section and click 'SAVE AS' and save your current setup as say 'start1' - then if it all goes wrong you can LOAD this back and hit APPLY.
4)clear all axis controls and start from scratch assigning them.
5)SAVE AS say 'TEST1' and APPLY
6) test ingame.
7)If/when you have axes working properly, only then do the same for any key/button assignments.
when you have this setup to your liking, only then think about saving it as something meaningful (eg Blenheim) and think about repeating the process for your other controller setup, saving this as say 'single engine'- I use separate profiles for nearly every AC

Boring I know , but a logical approach works best to isolate and solve issues, CoD is complicated, often counterintuitive(most 'issues' make perfect sense to a coder - but not to the average user imho).

Good luck