Flight simulator controls: keyboard, mouse and gamepad cheat sheet

Open Flight World can be flown with a keyboard, a mouse or a gamepad, and every control is within reach of each one. This page is the cheat sheet: every key and button in one place. You can also see them inside the simulator at any time with F1, drawn on the device you are using, with each key lighting up as you press it.

One idea first: let go and it stays

Before the keys, the one thing that makes these controls different. In Open Flight World the stick, the arrows or the mouse ask the aircraft for a rate of turn: the further you push, the faster it rolls, pitches or yaws. When you let go, the turning stops and the aircraft stays as it is: the nose where you left it, the wings at the bank you left them.

That means you never hold a key to keep an attitude, and you never need to trim. Push, watch, let go. It feels like a game, and it makes a first flight easy, while the aircraft still flies with real physics underneath: it can stall, it climbs with power and slows down in a climb.

Keyboard

The keyboard layout follows the conventions of browser flight simulators, so if you have flown one before, it will feel familiar.

Flying the aircraft

Configuration

The simulator

Tip: tap the arrows rather than holding them. A short tap gives a small change; holding keeps the aircraft turning. For power, 9 for takeoff and the Shift and Ctrl keys for everything else work well.

Mouse

Press M to fly with the mouse. The mouse becomes the stick: its distance from the centre of the screen sets how fast the aircraft rolls and pitches. Move it to the right of the centre and the aircraft rolls right; above the centre, the nose goes down; below it, the nose comes up. There is a dead zone in the middle, so to hold the aircraft steady, bring the pointer back to the centre.

Everything else stays on the keyboard: power with Shift and Ctrl, flaps with [ and ], the rudder with , and ..

Tip: small movements near the centre are enough. If the aircraft feels nervous, you are moving the mouse too far.

Gamepad

Connect an Xbox or PlayStation controller (or most others your browser recognises) and press any button: the simulator switches to it. Everything can be done from the gamepad: what has no button of its own is in a menu opened with the directional pad.

The start screen works with the gamepad too: A (✕) chooses, B (○) goes back, the shoulder buttons jump between steps and Start takes off from any of them. The buttons shown at the bottom of the screen use your controller's own names.

Tip: the sticks have a small dead zone, so a worn stick that rests a little off centre does not turn the aircraft by itself.

Flight sticks

A flight stick that the browser recognises as a game controller also works: the stick rolls and pitches, the twist (or a third axis) is the rudder, and the throttle lever sets the power. The main buttons are mapped to the brakes, the camera, the gear, the flaps and the autopilot.

On the start screen

The coach

The controls guide (F1) has two modes. In Simple, a coach tells you the next thing to do at each moment of the flight (takeoff flaps, full power, rotate at a given speed, flaps in, slow down, flare, brake) with the keys or buttons of the device you are using. In Advanced, it only warns you of danger: a stall, too much speed, sinking fast, or the gear still up close to the ground. The controls themselves are the same in both.

If you are learning, start with Simple and read the beginner's guide to flying in a browser.

Frequently asked questions