I know there have been plenty of threads about joysticks settings and the thing is what suits one stick doesn't always suit another which is why you have to mess around with the sliders to get it right.

I love the game but have always got mad at my planes jerking around the sky. Move the stick slightly and you just can't keep the plane smooth and for me keeping the enmy in your sights was extremely difficult.

I am posting this because in every guide I have seen it always says whatever you do the last slider must be set at 100 (maximum control surface deflection). I have found that (for me) this is not true and the last slider can be set well below that. The important thing is to have a smooth movement of the control surface.

I have a Wingman Force 3D (with FF switched off) and although it's a cheap stick it does the job.

After spending ages trying out different slider positions I have come up with these which work great for me. They add weight to the feel of the plane, keep it smooth and you can easily stay on the bandits tail and keep a steady bead on him. It has transformed the game for me.

The key thing here is that the last slider is nowhere near maximum !

PITCH 2 4 8 12 17 22 26 32 36 40

ROLL 2 4 6 9 13 17 21 24 27 30

YAW 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Dead band and Filtering are set at 20%

Now I know that these settings may not suit your stick but if you are bothered by your plane being too twitchy and unrealistic it may be worth you trying something like the above. The results surprised me but they work and I am really enjoying the game at last.

I too have set my slider settings low, but not as low as you have it. I will try your settings NineLives!

Can you get Full control surface deflection at these settings ?

I just did an expirement and the answer is NO. For just the rudder (yaw) if you go into single mission so your plane is on the ground and do an outside view of the plane you will see you can't move the rudder very far right or left. Change the yaw setting to a higher slop ending in 100 and you will see that the rudder will now move to its full range (you can see that by the 'v' cut in the elevators. My conclusion is that with low settings you can not get all the capability of the aircraft. But this is an issue of any sim vs real life. In rl if you were going through the air at 400 kpm you would get some strong resistance from the air flow. The only way you can get something like this is from a darn good joystick that deals with this aspect of flight sims. All that said, lower settings will make flying this sim much easier for most of us.

Try something like this. ONLY if you pull like mad will you get full deflection of the control surface. Most of the time you will get what you need, which is less. Best of both worlds.



I also think 20% for a dead zone is WAY WAY too much. Try the above but cut the dead zone down to 5%. It is all you need I bet.

The trouble is Uriah you wont be able to max perform your aeroplane whilst your opponents will.

I run my elevator pretty high.



But the trick is this, for CH users:



It's smooth, and I can still get enough deflection to snap stall.

100 across the board for me, anything less online and you bleed to death. Just don't yank so hard!

The last slider is maximum deflection. The problem is that with some sticks you can reach maximum deflection BFORE the stick is at maximum travel and this is why some people complain of poor control/stalls/power bleed etc because they are at maximum deflection most of the time.

I know that setting the last slider at less than 100 means you don't use max deflection but that is my point. By getting it just right for your stick you can still control the plane properly but avoid the unrealistic properties the game displays at maximum deflection.

For me with the last slider on about half way position I can still easily dogfight and yet avoid that horrible jitter where the plane wobbles around and is always changing direction like a paper plane with unrealstic snap movements and not like a heavy fighter.

For me it has fixed the game. I was playing it last night and had most of the difficulty options turned on and yet although I was still getting red/backouts during really hard turns I wasn't swinging side to side and falling out of the sky like I used to.

The plane had real feel and was rock steady in the sky simply because I was avoiding the dreaded maximum deflection.

If you are having issues where the plane is too light and jittery just try it. Turn your last slider down and make the rest a smooth curve up to it. It may just work for you too. It will feel odd at first but you soon get used to it.

As I said before it will not apply to every stick but if you had issues like me (and it seems plenty do) then it is certainly worth a try.