F-2 MISSIONS
Rudder Placement — Choosing One of Three Layouts
From v1.2 you choose where the rudder lives: sharing the stick's lateral axis, pedals above the stick, or pedals beside the throttle. What each one buys you, what it costs, and which missions each suits.
When you fly a fighter with two thumbs, the first thing to settle is where the rudder goes. Pitch, bank and throttle all have a home. The rudder is the fourth control, and there is no fourth thumb.
From v1.2 you pick that home from three layouts. The game asks once, on your first sortie, and you can change it any time under Settings › Controls.
The default is "above the stick". It is the layout where bank can never die by accident, so fly your first few missions on it. Come back to this page when something starts to feel wrong.
The three layouts
| Layout | Where the rudder is | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Above the stick (default) | Two pedals above the left stick | Rudder lifts your thumb off pitch |
| Stick lateral axis | Shared with bank on the left stick | Where you first touch decides which you get |
| Beside the throttle | Two pedals flanking the throttle | Your right thumb shares with the throttle |
All three fly exactly the same aircraft. The rudder is a flat turn (±1°/s) in every layout, and turns are still flown with bank (Basic Controls). The only thing that changes is which thumb is responsible for it.
Above the stick (default)
Bank stays on the left stick; the rudder moves to two pedals sitting above it.
What you gain — the lateral axis becomes bank-only, so bank can never die by accident. Your right thumb stays on the throttle.
What you give up — while a pedal is down, your left thumb is off pitch. Pitch here is an alpha command, so the aircraft holds its attitude when you let go — but glideslope corrections pause for that moment.
Stick lateral axis
This is the v1.1 layout. Bank and rudder share the left stick’s horizontal axis.
A drag that starts near the centre of the pad is bank; a touch that starts inside the green band is rudder. Only the point where the touch began is used, so a finger that starts in the centre stays on bank even as it slides outward.
What you gain — the only layout where pitch and rudder come from one thumb at the same time. Vertical is pitch, horizontal is lineup, so on final your left hand flies the path and your right hand flies the speed.
What you give up — the two controls compete for one axis. Put your thumb down slightly off, and the bank you wanted comes out as rudder.
Only on this layout, Settings › Controls › Rudder area sets the green band to Wide / Medium / Narrow. In v1.1 this was fixed, and players whose thumbs did not match it simply lost their bank. Catching rudder you did not want? Go narrower. Struggling to reach the rudder at all? Go wider. The settings screen draws the band, and the divider moves as you choose.
Beside the throttle
The rudder moves to the right-hand side, on two pedals flanking the throttle.
What you gain — your left thumb is free for attitude alone. Wherever the throttle can be set and left — free flight, for instance — this is the lightest layout of the three.
What you give up — your right thumb has to share with the throttle. On approach both want continuous small corrections, which makes this the hardest of the three for carrier work.
Which layout suits which mission
| Mission | Layout that helps | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier approach | Stick lateral axis | The last 30 seconds are pitch and lineup at the same time — one thumb doing both is worth a lot |
| Takeoff and circuits | Above the stick | Bank arriving reliably matters more; rudder is only used to hold the runway heading |
| Low-level ingress | Above the stick | You are banked almost continuously in a valley, and a dropped bank is a ridgeline |
| Formation and refueling | Beside the throttle | Station-keeping is mostly attitude trim, and the throttle can sit still for long stretches |
Switching per mission is fine. Open Settings before a briefing and the new layout is live from that sortie.
Your hands keep flying the old layout for a while after you change it. Switch before a one-shot mission like a carrier trap and the adjustment period lands straight on your score. Fly one easy mission on the new layout first.
The other two knobs
Separate from placement, Settings › Controls has two dials that change the response itself.
Sensitivity curve
How stick travel maps to control response: Off / Light / Standard / Heavy. It applies to bank and pitch.
- Off (linear) — you get exactly what you put in
- Heavy — the centre flattens, so small corrections are easier
If the aircraft keeps overshooting on approach, try Heavy first. The settings screen plots the curve, so you can see what each one does as you pick.
Input method
Virtual Joystick / Gamepad / Auto (both).
“Auto” is the v1.1 behaviour: the on-screen pads stay up and a connected gamepad also flies. Choosing “Gamepad” hides the on-screen pads entirely, giving the whole bottom of the screen back to the world.
Read next
- Basic Controls — Stick, Rudder, Throttle — what each control actually does
- The First Five Minutes — the rules to know before the layout matters
- Landing — Circuit, Approach, Touchdown, Full Stop — where the rudder earns its place