I’ve been flying the Cessna Longitude now for a few weeks on PC with keyboard, mouse and Logitech Extreme 3d Pro. Here’s my current config, shared in the hopes that this may be useful to others.
My goal is to use the numeric keypad and the joystick as much as possible, and then use the mouse to scroll and click as needed. My mouse binds are all default.
On my keyboard, I cleared all inputs from the numeric keypad, bar Backspace and Enter (which I chose not to use as they are also on the main keyboard and doing things like selections).
Numeric Keypad:
- Num Lock = TOGGLE AUTOPILOT MASTER
- Num / = TOGGLE SPOILERS
- Num-0 … Num 9 = LOAD CUSTOM CAMERA 0 … 9
- Num * = ARM AUTO THROTTLE
- Num + … Num - = INCREASE SIM RATE, DECREASE SIM RATE
- Num Del = AUTO THROTTLE TO GA
The concept for the views came from a post here (wish I could attribute it, as it was a game-changer). Set your favorite ten cockpit views and bind to ALT-0 to ALT-9 via CTRL-ALT-0 to CTRL-ALT-9. Then as a secondary key-bind, bind them to NUM 0 to NUM 9. My views for the Longitude are Left 45 degrees (NUM 7), LIGHTING PANEL (NUM 8), Right 45 degrees (NUM 9), Left and Center Flight displays and entry consoles (NUM 4), Center display and AP panel (NUM 5), Center and Right displays and entry consoles (NUM 6), Left console and flight display (NUM 1), Throttle / Starter / APR quadrant (NUM 2), Right console and right display (NUM 3), then finally the look straight ahead at right height, to see out the window plus main display (NUM 0).
The concept for the other keys was to have AP and AT on NumLk and NUM *, with spoilers in between NUM /. Time slew on NUM +/-. Then finally a TOGA on NUM DEL.
LOGITECK EXTREME 3D PRO:
Starting from default bindings for axes and the coolie hat, I took all other binds off abd replaced with this:
-
JOY 7 (side top left) = TOGGLE SMART CAMERA
-
JOY 8 (side top right) = RESET COCKPIT VIEW and RESET EXTERNAL VIEW
-
JOY 9 (side mid left) = TOGGLE AUTOPILOT MASTER
-
JOY 10 (side mid right) = TOGGLE PARKING BRAKE
-
JOY 11 (side bot left) = BRAKES
-
JOY 12 (side bot right) = HOLD THROTTLE REVERSE THRUST
-
JOY 1 (trigger) = COCKPIT / EXTERNAL VIEW MODE
-
JOY 2 (thumb) = ATC PANEL CHOICE 1
-
JOY 5 (left of hat) = ELEVATOR TRIM DOWN (NOSE DOWN)
-
JOY 3 (bot left of hat) = ELEVATOR TRIM UP (NOSE UP)
-
JOY 6 (right of hat) = DECREASE FLAPS
-
JOY 4 (bot right of hat) = INCREASE FLAPS
The concept here is to have the elevator trim on the left of the hat, the flaps on the right, the external view on the trigger (used all the time), and the ATC Answer 1 on the thumb (change frequencies, acknowledge, etc). Then for the side buttons, smart view and reset at the top, AP off and parking brakes in the middle, and brakes and reverse thrust on the bottom.
With these binds, on final approach, full flaps, gear down, 138 kts, AP and AT on, the process will be:
- NUM 0 … look ahead, view set nicely
- JOY 9 … AP off (leaving AT on)
- Juggle the JOY 3 / JOY 5 to null out the elevator trim
- Smooth joystick inputs to keep alignment and descent rate (e.g. 600 fpm)
- Watch the AT retard over the runway, sliding thrust lever to zero
- Hold down JOY 11 and JOY 12 … JOY 11 for the brakes, JOY 12 to arm the reverse throttle
- Throttle up, checking the center console to make sure the T/R deploys and you get a huge braking action.
- Release JOY 11 and 12, bring flaps up (JOY 6), and roll off the runway.
Hope this helps, and I would love any other ideas or comments on what more to do.