Charles,
If the axes move and calibrate in X‑Plane’s joystick screen but do absolutely nothing in the aircraft, that usually means one of three things in XP11:
- The axes are calibrated but not actually assigned to pitch/roll/yaw/throttle, or they’re assigned to something unexpected.
- A plugin/script is overriding flight controls (common with some camera/utility plugins, Lua scripts, or “external FFB/control” type tools).
- You’re in a situation where X‑Plane is ignoring joystick inputs (keyboard/AI/autopilot/“auto-rudder” interactions are less common, but worth checking).
Step 1 — Confirm the axes are truly assigned
In X‑Plane go to the Joystick settings page where you see the axis bars moving.
- Click each axis drop-down and make sure they are set to the basics:
- Yoke left/right = Roll
- Yoke forward/back = Pitch
- Pedals = Yaw (and toe brakes if you use them)
- Make sure they are not set to “none” or to something like “view”, “mixture”, “collective”, etc.
- Hit whatever “Apply/Done” button you see on that screen and then re-test in the sim.
Step 2 — Check for a control override (plugins/scripts)
This is the big one when everything calibrates but nothing moves in the airplane.
- Temporarily remove/disable 3rd party plugins and try again.
- Easiest test: move everything out of:
X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins
…except Laminar’s default ones (don’t delete anything—just move them out to a temporary folder on your desktop).
- Re-launch X‑Plane and try the C172 again.
If controls suddenly work, add plugins back one at a time until you find the culprit.
Step 3 — Make sure you’re not fighting the autopilot
In the default C172:
- Confirm the autopilot is OFF.
- Also confirm you’re not in a “replay” situation (replays will ignore live control input).
Step 4 — CH Control Manager (if you use it)
If you’re running CH Control Manager with a merged device/profile, it can sometimes present axes in a way X‑Plane doesn’t like (or multiple axes end up mapped oddly).
- As a test, close CH Control Manager completely and plug the yoke/pedals in “plain” so Windows sees them as standard USB game controllers.
- Then re-do the X‑Plane joystick setup from scratch.
Step 5 — Force X‑Plane to rebuild the joystick prefs
Sometimes the joystick config gets stuck/corrupt.
- Exit X‑Plane.
- Go to:
X-Plane 11\Output\preferences
- Move (don’t delete) the joystick-related preference files out of that folder to a backup folder.
- Start X‑Plane and reconfigure/calibrate again.
A few quick questions so I don’t send you in circles
- Do your yoke/pedals work in any aircraft in XP11, or none at all (including the default C172)?
- Are you running any plugins/scripts at all (FlyWithLua, camera utilities, etc.)?
- Are you using CH Control Manager profiles/“mapped mode”, or just the raw USB devices?
- When you move the yoke in the cockpit view, do you see the yoke/controls in the 3D cockpit move at all, even slightly?
If you can answer those, I can narrow it down pretty quickly.