FlightGear Flight Simulator/Keyboard Quick Reference

This page provides a quick reference for the most used keys in FlightGear. While joysticks, yokes and rudder pedals are supported, you can fly FlightGear using the keyboard alone or in conjunction with a mouse, described below. However you choose to control the aircraft, you will need to use the keyboard for at least some control actions. These key bindings are not hard-coded, but user-adjustable. You can check these setting via the file keyboard.xml which can be found in the main FlightGear directory. This is a human-readable plain text file. We do not recommend modifying the files in the installation directory, but based on this file, you can create your own, in any location, and include it using a --config=path/to/your-keyboard.xml command line option. Although it is perhaps not the best idea for beginners to modify this file, more advanced users will find it useful to change key bindings according to their wishes, e.g. to match other simulators. Also remember that each aircraft can also have its own key bindings, which you should look for in the catalog of a particular aircraft. Aircraft controls In order to have full control of the plane via the keyboard you should ensure that NumLock is on, and the FlightGear window must be active (i.e. have focus.) The keys in the following table cause a deflection of the aircraft control surfaces or its throttle position. Key Action 9 / 3 Throttle 4 / 6 Aileron 8 / 2 Elevator 0 / Enter Rudder 5 Center aileron/elevator/rudder 7 / 1 Elevator trim Additionally, the following table shows the keys that control the engines. Key Action ! Select 1st engine @ Select 2nd engine # Select 3rd engine $ Select 4th engine ~ Select all engines { Decrease magneto on selected engine } Increase magneto on selected engine s (hold) Fire starter on selected engine(s) M / m Lean/Enrich selected engine mixture N / n Decrease/Increase selected propeller RPM And the keys for the control of secondary aircraft systems are included in the following table. Key Action b (hold) Apply all brakes , / . (hold) Apply left/right brake (useful for differential braking) l Toggle tail-wheel lock B Toggle parking brake g / G Raise/lower landing gear Space Push To Talk (PTT) - / _ MP text chat menu/entry [ / ] Retract/extend flaps j / k Retract/extend spoilers Ctrl-b Toggle speed brakes Simulator controls To change the view direction, you must de-activate NumLock. The available controls are listed in the following table. Numpad Key View direction Shift-8 Forward Shift-7 Left/forward Shift-4 Left Shift-1 Left/back Shift-2 Back Shift-3 Right/back Shift-6 Right Shift-9 Right/forward Additionally, the following table includes the keys that allow you to control the display. Key Action P Toggle instrument panel on/off c Toggle 3D/2D cockpit (if both are available) S Cycle panel style full/mini Ctrl-c Toggle panel/cockpit hotspot visibility h Toggle HUD H Change HUD brightness i / I Minimize/maximize HUD x / X Zoom in/out Ctrl-x Reset zoom to default value v / V Cycle view modes forth and back Ctrl-v Reset view modes to pilot view z / Z Increase/Decrease visibility (fog) Ctrl-z Reset visibility to default value F10 Toggle menu on/off Shift-F10 Toggle fullscreen mode on/off Finally, the general simulator controls are included in the following table. Key Action p Pause simulator a / A Simulation speed up/slow down t / T (hold) Clock speed up/slow down Ctrl-r Instant replay F3 Save screenshot Alt-F3 Save series of screenshots as a panorama map Ctrl-F3 Save series of screenshots as a cubemap Esc Exit program Shift-Esc Reset simulator Autopilot controls FlightGear supports two types of autopilot – a generic autopilot that works with all aircraft (even those that would not normally have an autopilot), and aircraft-specific autopilots that are controlled from within the cockpit. The generic autopilot is controlled via the keys shown in the following table. Key Action Backspace Toggle autopilot Ctrl-a Toggle altitude lock Ctrl-g Toggle glide slope lock (NAV 1) Ctrl-h Toggle heading hold Ctrl-n Toggle NAV 1 lock Ctrl-s Toggle autothrottle Ctrl-t Toggle terrain follow (AGL) lock Ctrl-u Add 1000 ft to your altitude (emergency) F6 Toggle autopilot heading mode F11 Autopilot altitude dialog 8 / 2 Altitude adjust 4 / 6 Heading adjust 9 / 3 Autothrottle adjust Note: Ctrl-t is especially interesting as it makes your aircraft behave like a cruise missile, and follow the terrain. Ctrl-u might be handy in case you feel you're just about to crash.https://flightgear.gitlab.io/getstart/release-2024.1/en/HTML/getstart-ench5.html#menu-entries References