I just recently started flying helicopters.I've been using my Saitek throttle controller for ascending and descending. My Saitek X52 Joystick for pitch and yaw. I believe a real helicopter has a cyclic that is used to adjust the angle of the rotor, so while hovering , the fuselage can remain level while the helicopter can move forward or backwards.  Is there an assignment that I can give my joystick or throttle that could be used as the cyclic? I also have FUISPC 4. Right now in order to go forward or backwards , I have to pitch the nose up or down, which makes it difficult to land.

Simplified, the cyclic is the stick, and the "throttle" is the collective. There's a throttle in helicopters too that governs the rpm of the engine, but you control the descent or ascent rate through the collective and the cyclic and leave the throttle at certain rpm. 

 

Wikipedia has a nice article about helicopter controls.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_flight_controls

Is there a way to program the controls that I have ? I'm interested mainly in controlling the angle of the rotor for forward and backward movement.

When hovering, a helicopter pilot is constantly making minute pitch and roll adjustments to maintain position.  Yaw is in there too, but no so much unless it's windy.  It's not that the fuselage stays level, but rather the the control inputs are so small (if the pilot is doing his job!) that you won't notice.

 

Program your joystick to do pitch and roll in its X and Y axes.  Put yaw control somewhere else.

I think Jetsmell has yaw on his stick because the x-52 has a twist rudder function. Which isn't very good for helicopter control btw.

 

Do as Tube said and map your roll on the y axis.

 

Next, read the wiki I've linked. It's very important to understand how the helicopter works. The cyclic and collective only control the rotor, and not the airframe as, I'm guessing, you believe. So, when you pitch your stick, you actualy pitch the rotor disk, and then the airframe of the helicopter, which is like a pendulum (gyroscope?), follows and pitches too. 

The X-52 throttle is the collective in FSX, except it is backwards. When you pull collective you should increase lift. Engine RPM should stay at 100%.

 

Dave

One tip is to reverse the axis for your throttle, which should be mapped to your collective.  That way, you can mimic the motion of pulling up on the collective by pulling back on the throttle.

This is my highly scientific developed collective, for my X-52 throttle. Take a pet bottle, cut it so it fits, put some "stuff" in it for stability like paper & reverse the axis. The white tape is only for the sharp bottle edges. It's like a glove that goes on & off. Works pretty well :Peace:

 

 

This is my highly scientific developed collective, for my X-52 throttle. Take a pet bottle, cut it so it fits, put some "stuff" in it for stability like paper & reverse the axis. The white tape is only for the sharp bottle edges. It's like a glove that goes on & off. Works pretty well

 

Nice - I love home-made solutions.  I'm planning on taking a drill bit and popping a few holes in the handle myself, then using a short chunk of wood for the collective handle.