homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Falcon 4.0 Second try at this.. Getting Falcon working with MS Sidewinder USB stick?

I tried to get this game going well a few months ago but ran out of free time and to be honest had a real hell of a time getting the controls mapped to my sidewinder stick. The stick has a huge lack of buttons but I have been using it for about 20 years and I consider it an extension of my arm.

How can I get this stick working and with buttons mapped as I want them? I like DCS's button mapping style, pretty straight forward, and can't really wrap my head around Falcon's these days.

I also have several flight control panels and switch panels from Saitek which I'd like to utilize for various switches, can these be recognized by Falcon? How about rotary knobs on those panels, and trim rotaries?

Not sure about the Saitek panels... weren't these more for FSX? IIRC those don't work outside of that particular civil aviation simulator.

As for your MS stick, you can map controls directly in the in-game UI or use DirectX mappings in the .key file. I'm not sure if anyone on the official forums flies with a MS Sidey stick but it wouldn't hurt to ask over there.... that way you can get specific help. I will admit that setting up Falcon can be a pain; luckily you only need to do it once and you should be good.

The panels have software which enable them to work for anything. The switches are just basic rocker switches with on-off positions. Certain functions like the autopilot probably only work in FSX but rotaries on the panels still have function - just not connected to the LED on the panel itself.

Is there any way to do stuff like ctrl+button= flaps up, ctrl+shift+button = flare etc. This is basically how I have all my sims set up to deal with the lack of buttons on the stick itself, but I don't really know how to get it working.

Also how about adjusting null zone and sensitivity?

I am using an MS SIDEWINDER FFB2, and yes, it needs more button, so I paired it with an X52 throttle.
Takes ages to configure them for each simulation, but after that it is the best combo I ever had.
I also tend to sit down in the corner and cry a bit when a new DCS release wipes my cfg.

If you flick a switch, can it output something like "CTRL+B" then if you flick id the other way, it'll output something like "ALT+B"? If so, then you're all set. Find out which key combination you're using for the controls you want (ie, flaps, gear, etc.) and then map that to your Saitek switches. I say "find out" because the key combos can be different depending on which .key file you're using.

I have been eyeing those panels since forever but never bought one because I thought they were useless outside of FSX or civvie sims. If they are as useful as you say, I wonder why I've not seen more in pits for combat sims.


Can be done either in-game or if you have some sort of profiling sofware for your stick.


LOL!! I used to have a 2-3 day downtime after each DCS patch to make sure my controls and custom view settings were ported and configured correctly.