Using the logitech Freedom no matter how many times I have tried, no matter what I do with the initial Ron Machado Fly Now, I crash.The plane does not fly straight but banks all the way mostly to the right and I am unable to straighten it. It is as if I were turning the stick all the way right (or left)The speed drops down to 40, the lowest reading, again no matter what I do and I get what sounds like a buzzer. A warning(?) I suppose. Ronkeeps saying things like "pull back on the stick," or "push forward" but no matter what I do it doesn't seem to make any difference whatsoever.Guess I need to find another pasttime or hobby because this one is eluding me 100%. I am sorry to give this up because I was enthusiastic about the experience even with the high learning curve, but dealing with zero improvement is a bit much.Louis

Louis, don't give up. That sounds like a joystick calibration issue. Go to you the calibration function in Windows and make sure that you have centered all axis of the stick.

But I believe that I did calibrate the stick. It showed those dials and arrows and when I moved the stick they moved. I tried it once more and this time, and I have no idea how, I got to where we were about to land. At that point I am getting too high or decrease power, or to low, etc. No matter what adjustment I attempt I fail. Am I suppose to increase/decrease the throttle. Pull back or push the stick. Then he says this is not going well and the flight is aborted and the worst part I have no idea why. At least if there was SOME kind of feedback that may be helpful.I don't mind learning, even in tiny increments, in fact I enjoy the process, but I have been stuck on GO or zero for too long (for me) now and it is very, very frustrating and disappointing.Louis

Luis,Rest easy my friend. On one stage or another, we all have been there. Since then I have myself thrown about the sky for almost 4000 realtime hours and I still love this game...Start with the beginning!learn how to taxi, not for riding around in a plane but to learn how she reacts to your throttle input. After that, take off and start flying around (I cannot count the circuits I have flown around Meigs-default airport for quite some generations flightsim. XX). Do not try to attempt to land at first. Get to know your airplane, how she reacts to throttle, pitch up, pitch down, left, right.I know, I know, all boring and no glamour stuff but you'll need it later on. (Don't forget to ease down a bit on the difficulty settings)If you find yourself comfortable with flying around, try to slow down and start trying flaps (F6-F7) and see how the plane reacts.If you crash, don't just give up. Try again and try to remember what you did to make the plane crash...I am sure that, after a few tries, you will get the hang of it.Landing is a combination of all that I mentionned above so don't take it lightly. Just try to remember how your plane reacts to the different inputs and act accordingly.I wish you many hours of happy flying.Luc 'Glaudrung' BrusselmansBelgium

C'mon don't quit, you have to crawl before you can walk.. as is with flying...the fun is the know how.. and you'll only get that by trying.. not quiting..all lot of peeps started with "ehh bob.. what does that button do?, lol"... eventually you'll get the hang of it.. ps.a better joystick imo the saitek x-45 ;)

I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick, which worked great for a few months, and then developed a problem similar to yours. The left-right calibration drifted so that planes always wanted to bank left, and right turns were a chore. Checking calibration via FS9 only showed me that the calibration was off. It didn't allow me a way to fix the problem.Digging further, I discovered that this joystick in particular, despite its great feel and button placement, has a bug in the software. The joystick supposedly automatically re-calibrates itself, but there's no way to override the auto-calibration, and from time to time the auto-calibration gets corrupted. The first thing that seems to address the problem is to simply disconnect the joystick and then re-connect it. For me, this solved the problem (so far). But if this does not solve the problem, there's a fix you can download from the Logitech site that will clear the corrupted calibration. From what I've read, even after either of these fixes, the calibration will still tend to get messed up again, and there may be some reason to believe that the problem gets worse over time (I'm just going to wait until my problem gets unfixable, if it does, before replacing the joystick). Another fix is to return the joystick to Logitech. Tech support evidently knows about the problem and will reportedly send you a new one (though the new one may well have the same problem).I mention all this because in my investigations, I seem to remember reading some comments about similar problems from owners of the Freedom joystick, too. And the problem does seem to extend to Logitech joysticks beyond just the Extreme 3D Pro, too, since the "clearcalibration" program you can download from the Logitech site seems to have originally been written for the Wingman joystick, but they seem to propose it as a solution to this problem for at least some other joysticks.Try searching the Logitech message boards for further information about your joystick.Good luck.

It's actually a hardware problem but the Auto-Calibration makes the problem worse because you can not correct it. The pots used in this stick are extremely poor quality. They develop noise and become unreliable after a few months of normal operation. You can download tweaks and set a null zone but in the end, you have a stick that will only get worse and worse until it becomes unusable at which point you should by a Saitek :)

Louis,Hang in there, don't quit!!! You have set the first step and now you also have to set step 2...3 ...4..Like the others suggested, it sounds like a hardware/calibartion issue of your joystick.Just as a test you can also control your aircraft with your keyboard.(If I recall correctly with the arrows on your numeric keypad - Numlock off)Try to fly for a short while with your keys just to confirm its your joystick causing troubles.Flyin with your keys is not easy but it should give you a clue about the responsiveness of the aircraft.

It's very touching to me anyway that anyone even cares what this guy in Maryland is doing and experiencing when you all are off and enjoying yourselves. If anyone wants to sit with me here and telland show me what is going on, I will buy you Chinese dinner (my wife too so she won't have to hear me going off) and I'll throw in a copy of my album. I walked away from it this afternoon and watched the Oriole game which is something I do very well. (Won our 6th in a row by the way.)I would taxi around if I knew where and how. I thought the Fly Now under Getting Started with the Ron Machado there with you was supposed to be the easiest. I do everything he says as far as I know. After the flight aborts or crashes another screen pops up which looks like a map of sorts but I have no idea what it does or how to use it. FS 2004 seems to be a fabulous program but the documentation is barely existent and you can only call MS if there is an error or problem with the software and not for 'how do I.' SO things happen and screens popup and you don't know what or why. At least I don't.I really don't mind the 'boring' or 'non-glamorous' stuff because it is a step. In fact I would enjoy that. My frustration is not being able to pass step one and go at least from step 1 to step 1 1/2.Is not French the primary language in Belgium? Your English is perfect. Better than a lot of Americans. :) Louis

I am using Logitech now but yesterday ordered the CH yoke. It is already being prepared for shipping. Ordering from Amazon is sometimes almost like ordering a pizza. Also, please see my response to Glaudrung if you would like to add anything.Louis

Thank you my friend. I am planning to call Logitech support very soon. The stick feels fine. This one is a Freedom 2.4 cordless if that means anything being as yours is an Extreme 3D Pro. I have been using it very basically. Throttle + and -, forward and back and side to side. The only other thing was that I assigned the various views to a button on the side.The truth is I have no idea what the hell I am doing. I really wanted to learn this even if I had to creep and crawl through it.Louis

See my response to dugan1. With all due respect to your knowledge, experience and expertise on this, I have a feeling that it's not the stick but me. I have only had it a matter of days and it feels nice and firm, returns to center and while once in a while does not SEEM to respond, does catch up.I already ordered the CH Yoke USB and while I am not a negative person, I have a feeling I will wind up in the 'drink' again not understanding what I am doing and not doing.Louis

EgberthTo avoid being repetitious please see my other responses. Actually I did try it with the keyboard and with equal results except that the plane didn't go haywire during the flight but that there was always a problem with the landing.When Ron Machado said go up or increase throttle, etc, I did exactly that with the same non-results. And then there is that screen that comes on after the flight aborts/crashes which I suppose has some information in it and could show me where and what went wrong but I don't understand how to use it.I am going to try to hang in a while longer though.Thanks.Louis

Hey Louis, Try taking that little cessna up without Rob ;-). Don't worry about anything, just give her all the power and pull back slowly when you are at 55-60 knots, climb about 70-80 knots (don't worry about being exact). Once you are up to a happy altitude pull the power back a bit and enjoy the view. After you have had some fun you can slowly start to learn the proper procedures, power settinds, triming etc. All in good time. Do you remember how it felt the first day of Algebra? Hang in there, don't beat yourself or your toys up ;-) it will come...Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4][h3]P M D G's 747-400[/h3][h4]coming to a runway near you[/h4][/font color]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

LouisAre you using Autorudder? If not or if you don't know press ALT to bring up the menu bar, then click Aircraft, Realism, and look for Autorudder. If it isn't checked then click the box to enable it. With this enabled you won't have to worry about using the rudder. If you are going to use a yoke without rudder pedals this will really simplify things. It will cause problems with a few manuvers, like cross wind landings, but don't worry about that for now. A good way to practice landings is to set yourself up on approach about 6 or 8 miles out and make a save. This will let you quickly try the same approach repeatedly so you can experiment to see what works and what doesn't. It can also help you learn to convert the 2 dimensional screen image to a 3 dimensional mental image, which is necessary for sim flying. Hope this helps, and keep at it! You'll be well rewarded.David