Starting to make little progress

[d.burnette]

Originally Posted by mxmadman

Well, I think you're best off mapping your own keys as you have planned, but I don't think you should take time off of flying to map them.

Thanks for all the great tips mxmadman,
I will certainly keep them in mind as I plan and map out my new Cougar profile for this sim. By doing it this way, I will be able to map so much more to the stick by utilizing the 3 way switche, so each button can have multiple functions assigned to it.
I can easily program preflight functions onto buttons on my stick with a toggle switch in one location, and regular flight functions with the toggle switch in another, so doing as you describe regarding having all the preflight stuff close together is certainly doable . Just takes a little planning and preperation on my part.

Will take some time to get it going, but I think will pay off in dividends as I really get into flying this thing.

Thanks again,

[mxmadman]

Originally Posted by d.burnette

Thanks for all the great tips mxmadman,
I will certainly keep them in mind as I plan and map out my new Cougar profile for this sim. By doing it this way, I will be able to map so much more to the stick by utilizing the 3 way switche, so each button can have multiple functions assigned to it.
I can easily program preflight functions onto buttons on my stick with a toggle switch in one location, and regular flight functions with the toggle switch in another, so doing as you describe regarding having all the preflight stuff close together is certainly doable . Just takes a little planning and preperation on my part.

Will take some time to get it going, but I think will pay off in dividends as I really get into flying this thing.

Thanks again,

Excellent! Its great that your stick also has the ability to switch between different modes. Its easily one of my favorite features.

As far as tips I picked up when I was first assigning keys (wasn't long ago).

Assigned fov 30 and fov 70 (these are under Camera keys) to something very easy to reach. I use my hat switches (because I have Track IR). Fov 30 is basically zoom in, which is very helpful in aiming. Fov 70 is defaul and needed to get back to normal view.

Same goes for 'lean to gunsight' which is under View I believe. This is similar to the above as it zooms you in a little bit, but it also centers your view on the gunsight. Very helpful in the bf 109 where the gunsight is not centered on your screen by default.

Also, this may not be useful to you, but you can assign a button to the shift key in your joystick configuration. This is done in your joystick software outside of the game.

Using a shift key on your joystick or throttle is helpful to double up on the most accessible keys while you're in combat. For instance, my shift key is right under my thumb on my throttle, so its very easy to use. Trigger for me is just fire MG, and I have another button for cannons, but holding shift and hitting trigger fires both Mg and cannons, this way I don't have to move my trigger hand and mess up my aiming when I want to use both.

[d.burnette]

Originally Posted by mxmadman

Excellent!

Using a shift key on your joystick or throttle is helpful to double up on the most accessible keys while you're in combat. For instance, my shift key is right under my thumb on my throttle, so its very easy to use. Trigger for me is just fire MG, and I have another button for cannons, but holding shift and hitting trigger fires both Mg and cannons, this way I don't have to move my trigger hand and mess up my aiming when I want to use both.

Most excellent tips, and all are very doable with my setup. Yes my toggle is a 3 way, so I can setup 3 modes on my stick/throttle, and have lots of buttons available to me.
I have both printed them out and saved to my computer to have for reference.

Great tips and I appreciate them very much, will be very helpful once I start writing my joystick file!

Thanks again,