As I have flown in RL, albeit only a Piper Tomahawk, I understand the principles of flight and the importance of trimming. I realise that in a simulation, trimming works different in that you don't get to feel the relief as you trim to keep your controls in position.
I have had a Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog since I first got DCS in 2016 and I struggled with keeping the A10C straight and level after trimming, noticing that it either started to roll left after correcting for right roll and vice versa. There was never a point in between no matter how hard I tried to keep the POV hat movement to a minimum. Same with pitch, it was either pitching up or down, never exactly straight. So I got used to the auto pilot, which became my best friend.
Over the years, I have watched many youtube videos and read comments about others who have experienced the same thing and they have been told to use axis tune in various guises, either being told to change the curves or add dead zones. I have tried curvatures of 10 15, 20, 25 and 30. I even tried a dead zone of 6, which I don't really think it needed but in for a penny and all that. The curvature settings took away the 'feel' I had developed over the years. Having to push the stick further to get a reaction also increased over-compensation but obviously after trimming the aircraft, it still rolled either left or right and it still pitched either up or down.
This is so frustrating. I haven't been able to complete AAR yet because the drift is too bad to compensate for. Youtube videos make it look so easy but I don't see the sort of drift I experience, in these videos. Not even a little. I forget how many Harriers I have destroyed because of this and you can forget about trying to land on a carrier. Putting my head down for a brief moment (TrackIR) to flick a switch or change the radio frequency, often ends in a nose dive or sharp deviation off course. This isn't wind modelling.
I tried a little experiment today where I released the pin holding the two halves of the throttle and ran one engine slightly slower than the other. It appeared to compensate for the drift and I achieved level flight for more than a second. I guess if one engine is running faster than the other, it would have a tendency to push one side of the aircraft harder and therefore the wing on that side would lift more, creating a roll.
Tomorrow, I will be trying a different joystick to see if it makes a difference. In one way I hope it does because it will make my DCS experience more enjoyable, however the downside would be I have spent a huge amount of money on a Warthog HOTAS. Somehow though, I don't think it is the joystick. If only there was some way of calibrating the A10C.