Fly the stick
Point where you want to go and the plane takes you there. That's how most pilots like to fly, and it isn't changing. But some of you came up on the old sims, where the mouse was the stick and every degree of bank was yours to earn. That mode is here now. One picker in Settings, on desktop and on phones.
Two ways to fly
Open Settings (O in flight, or the ⚙ top right) and the first row is the new MOUSE FLIGHT picker:
- **Director — point and fly.** The shipped default, unchanged. Put the reticle where you want the nose and the plane flies itself there, picking the bank, pulling the turn and catching the stall for you. - **Stick — raw control column.** The mouse is the stick. Nothing flies the plane but you. - **Off — keys only.** The old V-key setting, now with a name.
How the stick flies
In Stick mode a small ring sits at the centre of the screen. That ring is neutral. The reticle is the head of the stick, and how far it sits from the ring is how far you've pushed the stick over.
Nudge the mouse right and the Spitfire starts to roll. Leave it there and she keeps rolling, through the knife-edge and onto her back, until you bring the reticle home to the ring. Ease it back toward you and the nose comes up, and it keeps coming up until you let off. Nothing springs back to centre for you, just as a real stick stays wherever your hand leaves it.
That's the trade. The director keeps you out of trouble; the stick lets you get into it. Snap rolls, a barrel roll flown on the ailerons alone, a pull hard enough to stall the wing in the turn. All of it is yours now, including the stall.
A few things carry over:
- **The rudder stays on the keys** (Q/E by default), the way every sim that lets a mouse be a stick does it. - **The keys still win.** Hold a roll key against the stick and the key takes that axis. - **Auto-trim** still holds your altitude with the stick centred. Once you pull, the elevator is all yours; trim no longer leans against a gentle climb. - **Mouse flight sensitivity** sets how far you move the mouse to take the stick from centre to the stop. Turn it down for a longer, finer throw. - **Inverted elevator** works the same way it always has. Tick it and pulling the mouse toward you hauls the nose up, like a real yoke.
The stick only flies the plane. Flak mounts, bomber turrets and hull guns aim exactly as they did.
On a phone
Phones get the same picker. On Director the thumb stick asks for a bank and the plane flies the turn for you, as before. On Stick the thumb stick is the column: push it over and the ailerons go with it, and lifting your thumb centres them.