Hello Everyone:

I was hoping that someone with more experience than I could help me with
some questions/problems that I have with MS Flight Sim 2004. I have owned
all of the FS since 4.0, and the one that has worked best for me has been
2002. A couple of weeks ago, I got 2004, and am quite happy with it as an
"upgrade," more for the "little things" (more choices in ATC, better GPS,
etc), but have had some problems that are either brand new, or seem to have
gotten worse in this version.

First, my system;
Compaq 1.6 GHz Pentium 4
512 mb RAM 433mhz bus
80gb 7200 EIDE HDD 80gb Maxtor external HDD (USB)
NVIDIA Geoforce 2MMX 64MB video (yeah yeah, I know)
Windows XP Home SP1 with all the lil "patches"
Saitek Cyborg EVO Joystick

This system can run FS2004 fairly well, good frame rate, not the best
scenery detail of course, but I use FS mostly as a recreational thing, to do
the flying that I cant afford, and am not skilled for yet, in R/L. I have
taken some flight training in the past, it's been a long time ago, but I do
know what it's like to fly a real 182, etc. With my older video card I've
found that the best thing to do is leave it at whatever the program puts at
the defaults--that gives the best performance for me.

Now, to the issues:

1. Rudder control-Both my joysticks (I also have the MS Sidewinder 2.0 that
frankly I'm disappointed with), have twist for rudder. It is VERY DIFFICULT
to taxi, to keep the plane on the taxi line and even more difficult to track
the center on take off and landing rolls. This occurs in all planes but is
worse in the Mooney Bravo. Is this just part of the flight model, .cfg file,
whatever? I don't want to invest in custom rudder controls and have the same
problem..that would be very depressing! Also once in the air, the planes
especially the light gen av aircraft, wander a bit as far as heading (the
Mooney is worst at this).

2. Auto Pilot Problem-Now THIS is the thing that is frustrating. When I'm
flying any of the lighter aircraft, really anything other than the
airliners, when the A/P is set for altitude it keeps the trim so nose high,
the airplane can't pass 80 knots or so. This is especially bad in the 172
182 and Mooney. The twins do it to an extent; it doesn't really happen in
the jets because you can set the A/P to maintain IAS. Is there ANY way to
stop the A/P from setting the trim so nose high? I've also noticed that when
flying along in A/P that periodically the plane will suddenly act like it
was hit by a gust (even with wind turned off), slip, raise and fall a bit,
then try to go back to the heading and altitude (and of course roll the
elevator trim way high! UGH!).

The Mooney for seem reason, just seems downright unflyable. Am I doing
something wrong, do I have to alter a config file or something? It just
seems, from my limited real piloting experience, that real aircraft are
about 20 times easier to control. Anyway thanks so much for taking the time
to read my post. I would appreciate any help or advice anyone could give.

Thanks!