I have been trying to get my very old Sidewinder to work with FS 2020 without success so I am now looking to buy a new system.
Leaning towards a Thrustmaster, primarily because there seems to be quite a few issues with Saitek products in their built quality and connectivity.
Am I doing right thinking about a Thrustmaster with a budget up to about £170?
I have the T16000M FCS and TWCS Throttle works great
I also have the Thrustmaster T.16000m FCS and it’s really smooth
The 16,000 is the digital resolution of the x & y axis, which is 4x better than a premium Wacom tablet’s paltry 4K
It’s plug and play with MSFS 2020 having all 14 buttons already mapped in a default way (can be re-mapped)
Mine was $70 American slightly used from Amazon
I have used the same setup and have had no issues until just before the last update. I’m not sure what changed or how, but now none of my axes register in World Map free flight, but they are fine in the challenges and the tutorial.
I’ve tried everything from drivers, Windows updates (and a clean install yesterday of both the game and OS), uninstalling, moving, folders, giving permissions and cannot figure why they stopped working!
It HAS to be something in the game, as all the buttons work fine, and the axes operate fine in modes other than free flight.
Troubleshooting is a PITA with the loading times; any change I make takes about 10 minutes to verify if it includes restarting the game.
Any suggestions?
T16000M FCS and TWCS Throttle have both and work a treat, i ignored the TM drivers although installed and used Windows 10 device manager and calibrated from there, works great…
Many thanks for the advice.
My problem now is finding a supplier with any in stock.
Flight controllers on various websites are showing as not in stock.
Nope. The global pandemic already had people stuck at home and looking for more and different ways to self-entertain. Add in the pandemic-induced disruption to the global supply chain, and now MSFS2020 … it will be mid/late next year before you’re likely to be able to just go to any usual retail website or physical store and buy flight controllers again without backordering or scalped prices.
I can’t find any way to calibrate the T16000M FCS and TWCS Throttle! I can go to the Installed Game Controllers window, select the joystick, choose Properties and verify all buttons and joystick movements are working but no way to calibrate!
I did read on another thread that to calibrate in Windows 10 you need to hold <SHIFT+CTRL> and then choose properties, but this doesn’t work for me.
Any suggestions/help would be great 
all i did was
go to devices and printers ( use the search box at the foot of the task bar )
right click on your controller icon ( there is no TM icon )
select the joystick or the throttle n the next box, and select properties
up will pop a box saying test,
select the next box that says settings
you should see two boxes reset to default or calibrate
select calibrate and follow the on screen directions, each time using a joystick or throttle button to move onto the next page.
it worked for me
hope this helps
Thanks for the reply and taking the time.
I followed your advice but unfortunately I’ve not discovered any way to calibrate the joystick! I can test it, but no more than that.
Within the ‘Thrustmaster Flight Control Panel Properties’ it says I’m using Control Panel 2.06. The only clickable option besides the usual Ok & Cancel is a Check for Updates button - there are no updates as I have the latest!
I’ve tried all different ways to discover a way to calibrate without success.
If I remember correctly I had to uninstall the the Thrustmaster drivers and the T.A.R.G.E.T software to be able to calibrate the joystick through devices and printers in Windows
I resorted to reading the manual!!
It seems there isn’t any manual calibration as the calibration is automatic and if you find a need for recalibration the manual states:
One thing I do find strange is that in the Thrustmaster control panel it shows the Joystick being ‘Left Handed’ - the selection is greyed out so no changes can be made. The selection for right or left is set by a switch on the base of the joystick - mine is set for right handed - a bit strange then the control panel shows left!!!
Thanks to all who contributed.
Ditto here - uninstalled TM drivers and Software
I also read somewhere that it should not be calibrated outside of MSFS
After that, it was working for me “out of the box”
One thing leaves me puzzled - my rudder peddles are not showing up in MFSF (only joystick and throttle) but do work
I’m pretty sure the pedals come up as 2 or 3 axis under the throtthe in MSFS
Have to have a look when I come home from nightshift tomorrow.
Maybe my fault to expect a separate page as it is for joystick and throttle, silly me…
