FG loads up unders Windows XP SP2 (using an ASUS - NVidia GT6600) and shortly after getting to the ready to fly window, the view moves up from facing forward in the cockpit to looking vertically and spinning around and around endlessly.I can momentarily return the view to the cockpit, but cannot prevent it from returning to the endless spinning.I have tried multiple aircraft and settings, but to no avail.I have read this forums entries and those on Sourceforge and see no mention of such a condition.Has anyone heard of this and/or come across a solution?

You have done a good job of providing some basic background information about your system and setup, however if you check out the troubleshooting section over at http://wiki.flightgear.org you'll find that there's some more stuff that we usually require in order to be able to come up with possible solutions for problems such as the one you are describing.>FG loads up unders Windows XP SP2 (using an ASUS - NVidia>GT6600) and shortly after getting to the ready to fly window,>the view moves up from facing forward in the cockpit to>looking vertically and spinning around and around endlessly.Do you possibly happen to have ANY input hardware (joystick, yoke, pedals etc) connected to the machine FlightGear is running on (the aforementioned troubleshooting section asks explicitly for this info, too!)?>I can momentarily return the view to the cockpit, but cannot>prevent it from returning to the endless spinning.>>I have tried multiple aircraft and settings, but to no avail.The problem you are describing usually occurs with miscalibrated input hardware that's providing inputs to FlightGear when it shouldn't, thus a joystick or yoke switch/axis may for example tell FlightGear to constantly rotate its view due to inappropriate bindings.>I have read this forums entries and those on Sourceforge and>see no mention of such a condition.well, then you may want to search again-there have in fact been various discussions about this very topic, for example check out (search query:"spinning"):http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=1543&mode=fullhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=1316&mode=fullhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=1154&mode=fullhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=881&mode=fullhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=58&mode=fullhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=1256&mode=fullAnyway, the usual recommendation is to troubleshoot the problem by checking the inputs that FlightGear is receiving from connected hardware, i.e. using the property tree or the HUD-or by simply disconnecting ALL input hardware in order to see whether the problem persists or not. Likewise, you may wan to take a look at the property tree/HUD values WHILE disconnecting any hardware.>Has anyone heard of this and/or come across a solution?1) determine if the problem is input-hardware specific2) if it isn't: come back with ALL of the info requested in the wiki troubleshooting section3) if it is, configure and calibrate your input hardware properly

>Do you possibly happen to have ANY input hardware (joystick, yoke, >pedals etc) connected to the machine FlightGear is running on (the >aforementioned troubleshooting section asks explicitly for this info, >too!)?Yes, I have a MS Sidewinder Pro; however, I did not mention it because I configured FG to use my mouse and it also did not work with that.One of the links you pointed me to helped me resolve the problem. Thank you.It appears the default configuration for the MS Sidewinder Pro (in the data/Input/Joysticks/Microsoft/sidewinder-3D-pro.xml file) is incorrect.The proper settings are:Axis 4 & 5 should be 6 & 7 (prevents the spinning)Axis 3 should be 2 (makes the twist function control the rudder)Axis 2 should be 3 (makes the slider control the throttle)Either this should be corrected in the FG distribution or it should be added to the FAQ.

>Yes, I have a MS Sidewinder Pro; however, I did not mention it>because I configured FG to use my mouse and it also did not>work with that.That's why it's usually a good idea to NEVER omit any info, regardless of how irrelevant you may consider it ;-)>One of the links you pointed me to helped me resolve the>problem. Thank you.Glad you got it to work for you.>Either this should be corrected in the FG distribution or it>should be added to the FAQ.Yes, but the FlightGear project doesn't yet have or use a patch tracker, so modified config files (and thus joystick configs, too) should in general be sent to the FlightGear Devel mailing list so that useful changes can be reflected in the base package for upcoming versions.In general however the problem you experienced may not necessarily be attributed to an incorrect config file for that type of joystick, rather joystick manufacturers often develop multiple different joystick revisions for otherwise identical hardware, so similarly named hardware may have different internals and may therefore not respond as expected when being used with (axis/button) mappings for another model (which may exactly be what you experienced).So, if at all possible you should examine your joystick's make and model carefully to look for its EXACT type/part number, so that your very configuration can be saved in a correspondingly named configuration file, rather than only "MS SideWinder Pro".

>In general however the problem you experienced may not necessarily be >attributed to an incorrect config file for that type of joystick, >rather joystick manufacturers often develop multiple different joystick >revisions for otherwise identical hardware, so similarly named hardware >may have different internals and may therefore not respond as expected >when being used with (axis/button) mappings for another model (which >may exactly be what you experienced).It is definitely to do with the config being incorrect. The reason I know this is the comments at the head of the file were correct. The actual settings in the file did not match the comments in the heading, but they now do in my config file.I will send this into the Developers feedback list.