Can anyone offer suggestions as to how I can smooth out my MS FS2002 aircraft??It seems that the slightest touch of the joystick and my VSI goes everywhere. Trying to manually hold an altitude w/o autopilot is far tougher than in the real aircraft. My rudder/steering control is far too touchy as well. It seems the flight controls are just too sensitive.I am using a MD Sidewinder w/ rudder function. I do not have force feedback. I have moved all realism settings to lowest settings hoping that would do it. It has not. Anyone found a way to make things more realistic?? Am I missing something?One more thing... can I pick up an IFR clearance from an airport w/o twr or CLR DEL? I had a flight plan on file, but I dont know how to activate itfrom an uncontrolled field. When I was airborne and called ATC, all I could get was Flight Following. No joy on my IFR clearance.ThanksGun Dog

Hey Gun Dog, you can go into the Options, Control, Sensitivites folder and set your Null setting higher and your Sensitivites down a bit, helped me out a lot!Ricky

Gun Dog,Try going the Options--->settings/controls (I'm not sure)--->and click sensitivity. There, put your null zone a little less before the middle and your actual sensitivity at about the middle. You will see that your joystick is much slower in responses and any that you do should be small. Experiment to see which null zone and which sensitivity works best for you.Also, sensitivity is also modeled in the plane. This means that every plane will be diffrent. It you move the stick half way to the side (no rudder) on a C172 and compare it with the same movement on a B747 you will see what I'm talking about. Same goes with every single plane out there even if it's only two small Cessnas or two big Boeings.I don't think you can get IFR from a non-towered and no-clearance airport. Im no pilot but I think the only way to do this in real life is to file an IFR clerance with the closest airport that does have a tower or clearance delivery. But I might be wrong-I'm not a pilot, yet. ;)Hope this helps,Alex.

>I don't think you can get IFR from a non-towered and >no-clearance airport. Im no pilot but I think the only way >to do this in real life is to file an IFR clerance with the >closest airport that does have a tower or clearance >In MSFS that may not be possible (never tried) but in real life you can certainly fly IFR out of an airport that does not have a tower. I and my friend did it a few months ago. You get clearance over the phone. You can also land IFR at airport with no tower.Michael J.

Gun DogIf the above suggestions don't clear up your control over-sensitivety problems try this. Open the FS2002.CFG file, find the (CONTROLS) section, and at the end of the list of entries add STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=0. This will tame things down to a more realistic level.David

Yes, I don't know what is the intention MS had with these sensitivity modes, but the default one (without the line you mention) makes the sensitivity sliders behave not adjusting sensitivity, but rather introducing a delay in the yoke response: setting slider to minimum still will give full deflection on the control surfaces, but with a large delay, which makes the aircraft even less controllable than with sliders at max. Another funny thing, it seems that this is not valid for all setups (maybe it's joystick-dependant?), as I have also heard of people who report the opposite (they need to add STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=1 or leave it as default). Can someone confirm this?Paco

You can set the sensitivities for individual aircraft and it works far better than the joystick sensitivity setting in the menu (by default it actually controls speed of response and is pretty useless). In the aircraft.cfg file you'll find a section called Flight Tuning. There are some effectiveness settings, e.g. elevator effectiveness. By reducing those values you'll get much better control. Best regards, Chris

HiYou can also use FSUIPChttp://www.schiratti.com/dowson.htmlFree and worksA lot to calibrateEmileEBBR

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and assitance. I'll adjust the settings and go from there.GD