Is it too sensitive or is it my stick???

Hey everyone - I am new to the forum after buying the game but I am having trouble and cant seem to find the answer anywhere so I am after any friendly tips.

I have the system to run the game on full but have a fairly old joystick - a Thrustmaster Topgun (non Force feedback).

The problem is that the response from the helo is so sensitive that I bairly even have to touch the stick and it is diving up/back/left and right. This makes any attempt at landing or fine movements almost impossible and really annoying!

I cant find anything in game to alter the joystick sensitivity nor is there anything on the internet other than other tools to calibrate the stick which I have used - There doesnt appear to be any calibration issues.

Any thoughts or tips would go down well here otherwise the stick is getting to meet my hammer in the shed!

Increasing the deadzones of the x- and y-axis of the stick should help. You can also try to change the curvature.

Options - Controls - then the "Axis Commands" drop down and finally "Axis Tune" on the relevant joystick axis.

You have saved my joystick and made such a difference to the game - thanks mate - truly awesome now!

Also, to eliminate the autopilot stabilisation system help as an issue, turn on the Flight Director mode (a flat blue button, to the right of the pilots right knee - it's the one by itself on the right of the group of four that look alike). This will just smooth the flight controls out, and not fight back a little - it may have some benefit to see what it's like without the system's input.

You have turned the AP channels on haven't you ?

IRL the pilots would not fly without them on, and untill you've had a bit of practice, flying with them off does make the aircraft very 'sensitive'

Avoid dead zone!

Increasing the deadzones of the x- and y-axis of the stick should help. You can also try to change the curvature.

 

Options - Controls - then the "Axis Commands" drop down and finally "Axis Tune" on the relevant joystick axis.

The dead zone should always be a last resort. It makes your stick resemble keyboard when using the range near the center position. Second - there is no intentional dead zone in real aircrafts. Any play along the control system up to the control surfaces is considered a serious safety risk. What I recommend is setting curvature rather than dead zones. I use Saitek AV8R with no dead zones and ~18% curvature. If you don't have rudder pedals you may set the rudder axis curvature even higher.

The only justification for setting dead zones is joystick potentiometer spiking. With 99% probability you have these potentiometers in your stick

Just a reminder/warning for people without experience with multiple controllers:

AFAIK every Logitech joystick and even HOTAS Cougar (sic!) use the same JUNK pots which will shoot signal spikes after a week or so.

Avoid them at all costs! :disgust:

 

Even cheap SAITEK joystick as Cyborg Evo uses better (completely different) potentiometers

The word better is inadequate here and I can't find proper English word to describe the HUGE difference between SAITEK pots and Logitech/COUGAR JUNK pots. Lets just say that almost 2 years old potentiometers in SAITEK Cyborg Evo have cleaner signal than 2 weeks old Logitech junk pots.

 

I don't have time nor money to sue them but I can share the info at least.

They are THE infamous potentiometers used by many controllers manufacturers, making flight sim experience miserable for millions. They are even in HOTAS cougar (sic!). They are crap. Not worth more words. Note that Saitek uses high quality pots even for their cheapest sticks (stay away from Saitek Cyborg X, BTW).

In this case I recommend the following procedure of setting minimum desired dead zone:

1. Set deadzone to 0 on given axis

2. Launch a mission in BS and press Enter - RCtrl to get controls indicator.

3. Lay your hand on the stick in center position and observe the position marker.

4. If it jitters increase the deadzone by smallest ammount and check it again for jittering.

5. Stop increasing the dead zone as soon as you minimized the jittering.

Helpful tools for testing joystick axes:

Wingman team gadgets http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=42462

Joystick Tester 1.0 Build 010000 http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Joystick-Tester.shtml