Realistic Flight Stick Setup?

[jomni]

Since I don't have real flying experience I've been wondering about the actual flight stick button functions in real life.

My current flightstick setup is based on convenience.

What is the hat switch for? Are there really radar controls in the stick? etc.

Does anyone have diagrams or some exmples (F-4, F-16, etc...)?

[JediMaster]

Every plane is different, really. If you search the net for pics of the old TM FCS/FCS Pro sticks, that's what the F-4's stick looked like. The TM FLCS/Cougar look like the F-16's.

I believe the main hat was usually trim, with the thumb control on the throttle to move the cursor on the various MFDs. The big pinky paddle on the stick is usually NWS engage/disengage IIRC. I have it programmed differently for every sim as well, so I don't stick to "real" very often myself!

[jomni]

Every plane is different, really. If you search the net for pics of the old TM FCS/FCS Pro sticks, that's what the F-4's stick looked like. The TM FLCS/Cougar look like the F-16's.

I believe the main hat was usually trim, with the thumb control on the throttle to move the cursor on the various MFDs. The big pinky paddle on the stick is usually NWS engage/disengage IIRC. I have it programmed differently for every sim as well, so I don't stick to "real" very often myself!

 

Oh well, and stick button don't match the real one anyway. So I guess what's convenient works. Just don't want to put an unrealistic function on them. Is trim simulated in the game? Most games would use the hat switch for POV. Don't have any use for the hat stwitch now since I use TrackIR so I'm thinking of a nice function.

Edited June 3, 2009 by jomni

[FastCargo]

Like JM said, every jet is different depending on about a billion factors, so personally, I make what works for me...not what it should do in the real thing. In fact, when I used to fly with a programmable stick/throttles/rudder, and I flew a lot of different sims, I tried to make all the major functions match across sims...that way the same button activated in the same way did the same thing in every sim, made life a whole lot easier back in the day.

 

FC

[Romflyer]

Oh well, and stick button don't match the real one anyway. So I guess what's convenient works. Just don't want to put an unrealistic function on them. Is trim simulated in the game? Most games would use the hat switch for POV. Don't have any use for the hat stwitch now since I use TrackIR so I'm thinking of a nice function.

 

At an airshow a few years back I had a chance to chat with an F16 pilot while we both stood on a platform beside his f16 looking into the cockpit .......it was very cool!! when asked, he explained that one of the toggles on the stick was trim, and the hat was for moving the curser on the radar to acquire targets........perhaps you could set up your hat to control the radar (up) to cycle, (left,right) range,(down) to acquire target...........as for the trim, yes you can set-up the game to use trim, do a search and you should find it.

[jomni]

At an airshow a few years back I had a chance to chat with an F16 pilot while we both stood on a platform beside his f16 looking into the cockpit .......it was very cool!! when asked, he explained that one of the toggles on the stick was trim, and the hat was for moving the curser on the radar to acquire targets........perhaps you could set up your hat to control the radar (up) to cycle, (left,right) range,(down) to acquire target...........as for the trim, yes you can set-up the game to use trim, do a search and you should find it.

 

Thanks. My hat is now for target cycling.

I enabled trim in controls.ini but will keep that to the keyboard since I will not use that often unless I have uneven load.

[eraser_tr]

I enabled trim in controls.ini but will keep that to the keyboard since I will not use that often unless I have uneven load.

 

We have trim controls? <wanders off to knowledgebase to see just how to enable them> Don't see anything in KB or in my ini files. is this a SF2 thing?

Edited June 5, 2009 by eraser_tr

[+streakeagle]

We have trim controls? <wanders off to knowledgebase to see just how to enable them> Don't see anything in KB or in my ini files. is this a SF2 thing?

 

this is an old trick that requires editing the control ini file for the arrow keys.

By default, they are configured to auto center and have a very reactive motion to allow you to pull hard turns.

Set centering to 0 and play around with the sensitivity until you like it.

[Romflyer]

Thanks. My hat is now for target cycling.

I enabled trim in controls.ini but will keep that to the keyboard since I will not use that often unless I have uneven load.

 

So is this set-up working for you, and what exactly did you do (hat buttons -functions) I'm curious cause I am about a week away from getting trackir and I'm sure it will completely change my needs as far as button mapping.

[jomni]

So is this set-up working for you, and what exactly did you do (hat buttons -functions) I'm curious cause I am about a week away from getting trackir and I'm sure it will completely change my needs as far as button mapping.

 

So far so good. But since the whole hat is set up to replace the default 'home' key (next radar target), only works when I move the switch up. Moving down left and right has no function. But a work around is to use the joystick config outside the game to give different functions to each Hat switch direction so you can use really it to cycle targets back and forth (emulate 'home' and 'end' keys). Haven't tried since I'm too lazy and SF2:E is already begging for more time.

Edited June 5, 2009 by jomni