Hi Scott,
I've just begun to explore the Space Navigator; it's very cool, but it takes some time to calibrate so that movement is natural. I'm still getting used to it, but this maybe a preview of the future.
Turns out that a custom driver for the S-N has been written that will work with any app that supports a joystick.
Here's the link:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=336It's a bit techie, but it does allow the S-N to work with TF. There are a huge number of options that you can configure with this driver, most a bit over my head at this point. The default settings will allow me to move the mouse cursor in TF. Assigning the  right click to one of the axes, or one of the two buttons is more than I want to play with right now. But perhaps someone could come up with a formula, a "layout" as it's called in the driver, and how to 'autoswitch' when TF is started. I think this has potential.
One issue for me though is that I'm planning to switch to Vista 64 bit, and all 64 bit drivers must be signed. The RBC9 driver is not, but I gather it's in wide use.
If you get interested in this, perhaps you could arrange to sign a driver; I know Armando of SpeedFan had do go through this recently so his program could be used on Vista 64 bit.
Larry