Well, this is my 1st flight sim & I would class myself as pretty casual at this stage. But after a few months playing with my old xbox 360 controller, I upgraded to a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.
I have to say - what an incredible difference ! Default setup out of the box is great, almost never need a command that isn’t already mapped. It’s now so much easier to have steady input, make fine adjustments & maintain course with minimal input. Gives me more confidence & more time to look around at every stage of the flight.
That’s not a slur on the 360 pad, which is one of the all time great general purpose controllers - but there’s so much benefit from having a specialist joystick for flight sim.
I know this is one of the more entry-level joysticks & the main reason I chose it was because it was literally the only controller I could find in stock in the UK but I’m really happy with it. It’s chunky, comfortable & feels well made.
So if there are any new players on the fence about whether to pay a bit more for a dedicated flight controller, I’d really recommend going for it. For not too much money, it will helps you enjoy MSFS a great deal more.
Glad it works for you, I couldn’t get it to work properly. Always banking without control input.
I’ve only just bought MSFS and dug out an old Precision 2 Pro joystick. Not too many buttons and nothing was mapped so had to do it all. Have to agree, it was a reasonably simple thing to set up. I’m thinking about getting something much better in a few weeks, once I know what I’m doing, lol
What plane was that with ? I’ve been doing the bush trip with th x-cub & the more you empty the tank, the more it pulls to one side. There’s also wind to consider, I guess. Not saying your wrong, but it’s 100x times easier for me to get level flight compared to the 360 pad, or perhaps to say, I can just adjust it occasionaly as it drifts. Also, trim is finally useful !
I have been using a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro for many years now for Flight Sim (earlier versions and this one) and agree with you. worked really well with default settings.
But had to play around with the sensitivities on the throttle lever, didn’t work quite well as could never get the power down to zero with throttle lever all the way down. Anyway. Got it working now and a joystick makes a whole world of difference in the sim… Even just a basic one.
I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say that I know what I’m doing, but …maybe a bit more than when I started.
I’m using my Extreme 3D Pro which I bought when FSX came out. It works great and I’ve mapped most I need to all the buttons.
I’m using the little hat joystick to adjust the heading bug and vs speed, flc speed and altitude by assigning it to the PLUS/MINUS function. (thus it also controls sim rate, radio etc based on what you activate)
AP toggle and emergency (real) pause assigned as well.
And a throttle lever makes landing so much easier as well as having rudder control right in your hand by twisting the stick. It’s only a bit tricky on touch down in cross winds, got to time the counter twist just right or drive off the side of the runway.
No worries… but in this case… a joystick is always better than a controller to enjoy it.
I am not very tech savvy either but so far enjoying MSFS. Cant get enough of it lol
“the heading bug and vs speed, flc speed and altitude”
shows me how much more I have to learn, I don’t even know what most of these commands you mention are…
You’re right though, the commands on the little joystick seem most sacrificable, because I still have the mouse available for that looking around stuff.
This is the key, I think.
I mostly use auto pilot to get around, those are all ways to control auto pilot. Basically secondary steering.
The heading bug controls the heading when you select heading mode in auto pilot. It has dedicated command settings under controls. (Increase and Decrease heading bug) So you can move the little blue target around the compass without needing to use the mouse.
VS speed is for VS mode, climb rate control for changing altitude.
FLC speed is for FLC mode, climb rate control based on setting a target IAS speed. AP will adjust pitch to keep that target speed and use the remaining power for climbing. (It doesn’t work that well for descent, works really well for a steady climb without losing speed as you get higher)
Altitude simply adjusts the target altitude where auto pilot will switch from FLC or VS mode to altitude hold mode. Often I set the target altitude far out of range and use VS mode to change altitude while flying through the mountains.
For the latter three I assigned up and down on the hat joystick to PLUS and MINUS and assigned keys to select vsi heading bug, autopilot vs hold on (using the same key to make it easy), select air speed bug, autopilot flight level change on and select altitude bug.
I pretty much only use hands on flying for take off and landing, secondary inputs, controlling auto pilot in between for a smooth flight while enjoying the views.
I assigned AP toggle (Toggle autopilot master) to the trigger, emergency turn off always good to have in reach instead of battling auto pilot.
Great, thanks for the info, I plan to get more into auto-pilot as I go on. Half of the battle is working out what all the acronyms stand for !
Here is a decent list of aviation acronyms and abbreviations…
Thanks ! Bookmarked !
Have you been able to select the autopilot mode by joystick?
If you have a game controller make sure to remove the flight surface control assignments for the game controller so they do not conflict with the joystick.
If you want to make a similar advance in feel and immersion, I recommend you try
out a yoke and quadrant.
I have autopilot master toggle mapped to the trigger (not much to shoot at in FS2020 :p)
You can map all the functionality of AP to the joystick except the multi function knob of the G1000. (for entering ICAO codes or directing to a nearby airport)
Yeah I find it hard to maintain heading and such with the xbox one controller. The sticks being so small make them sensitive to the slightest change.
I have been able to use the little hat joystick to modify heading/altitude/… values but, to select the AP mode (heading/altitude/…), I still have to use the mouse click. I don’t find them in the comand list !!! Where are ?