In a mission press Alt-O and change the controls to joystick. Once you do that you should never have to do it again.

I remember splurging around $120-130 on one of those back in the day - I wound up selling it on eBay as I had nowhere to put it that was comfortable. SO tempting to get another one now they're that cheap. I'm trying to pay WC3 with an Xbox 360 gamepad and the calibration goes out of whack so very quickly.

My game pad was mapped to the sticks by default. What game pad are you using?

Using a gigware, something i picked up at radio shack, I figured it out though, I had to push the mode button on the game pad and that switched it from dpad to sitcks. Thanks for the response

The most deadly and beautifully desinged joystick for Wing Commander is no doubt the Sidewinder 3D Pro (do not confuse with the generically designed Sidewinder Precision Pro)



You can find it cheap but you will need to make the Gameport to USB converter.

http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=15526

Once done its native digital mode can't be beaten in Windows 7 64 Bit

Also for racing games this stick is ideal due to the short swing compared to regular professional flight sticks.

A short swing once mastered pays off in racing and arcade sims.

(don't tell it to your disrespectful COD playing 14 year old nephew)

Read boostev's post where he says
You can find it cheap but you will need to make the Gameport to USB converter.
http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=15526
Once done its native digital mode can't be beaten in Windows 7 64 Bit

and follow the link to read what is said in the forum there and you will find that you can definitely make a converter to use your old joysticks, flightsticks, etc. with a USB port and they work quite well.

This was great news for me because I have an old one that I loved to use just for WC and Privateer/Righteous Fire. I am not impressed with most of the new joysticks because they seem flimsy and have most of the same flaws that drove me to buy the one I got. It has a well-weighted base so it doesn't move around and you can use it with either hand.
There were fancier sticks out there back then and they were expensive, but this one worked great for me. Now I can use it again.