A ton of people will finally be playing Microsoft Flight Simulator. And if you’re jumping into a flight sim for the first time, you’re probably doing so with an Xbox controller. So if that’s you, I have one massive piece of advice worth following.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is perfectly playable with a controller, and it’s something I fully recommend if you’re not too worried about getting into the weeds with how realistic the sim can play. But if you are going to play with an Xbox controller (or Switch/PS4/third-party gamepad), here’s a real big tip: Turn your controller sensitivity down.
The default sensitivity is helps in getting started, but it’s really high. Way too high, actually. As soon as you start flying lighter aircraft, any conditions where the wind is marginally high, or instances when the assist settings aren’t all maxed out, you’ll immediately run into problems.
Flight Simulator is a game where you want to make marginal adjustments, especially if you’re trying to line up a turn for a perfect landing. But the tutorials aren’t great at telling you how to fix the sensitivity, so here’s how you do that.
When you go to the Controls tab in the Options page on PC or Xbox, you’ll see your various inputs like such. Click on your “Controller” input, and on the left hand side you’ll see a blue (or white, if selected) box called Sensitivity.
Click that, and you’ll get the following pop-up:
By default all the sensitivity bars will be set to 0 per cent. You have to tweak each axis individually, so make sure you keep all the values the same, unless you want there to be a greater impetus on, say, pitching up and down than left and right.
If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend notching the sensitivity down by at least 10 per cent, as I’ve done here. If you’re going to spend a lot of time flying lighter aircraft, which can be especially twitchy, then you might want to go even further to -20 or -30 per cent. This’ll help, especially during the landing challenges where you get scored on precision and accuracy.
If you’re flying bigger aircraft, like the Boeing Dreamliner or the Airbus A320, then you might want a different sensitivity profile. Or a full upgrade to a yolk and flight rudders, since those big beasts handle completely differently. But I’ve found the game is more than enjoyable if you’re sticking to light aircraft and doing bush trips — basically joy flights around an area checking out the landmarks and going from one waypoint to another.
For more help with Flight Simulator, see our coverage below:
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