In the full version, in the opening screen, you click the OPT button, select INPUT in the option section, select your joystick/controller in the Device dropdown menu, and select the axis switch . You'll see Thrust in the list and make sure that corresponds to the axis on your controller which for my recently aquired X54 Pro is axis 2. I just started playing this game and this threw me initially since I was using Saiteks configuration program and the thrust wasn't working. Forget the demo, buy the full version, you can find LOMAC for rediculously cheap prices on Amazon etc. Then get a Russian language CD to learn the Russian cyrillic alphabet so you can recognise and pronounce the labels ; I know these can be changed to English before anyone comments.