Hello,
I am new to using a joystick for games. when i start trying to play wing alliance my ship is constantly turning all around and it wont stay still, i don't have to touch the stick to make it do this. I am unable to find the solution online and would appreciate any help.

The game may have defaulted to binding the throttle on your joystick as your roll. Which joystick are you using? Is the game X-Wing Alliance?

First:
which joystick?
Second:
which operating system are you using?
Third:
Which game in the series?
Fourth:
is it literally turning or rolling?

If your stick has more than two, three or four axes, you might need to see if there is a proprietary software or some control panel in the drivers to disable the axes you won't be able to use with the game anyway.

It's also possible, like @ZyloxDragon said, that the game detected the axes out of order and you are rolling with the throttle slider instead of whatever rudder axis your stick has.

I have the exact same problem, only it's not restricted to the joystick. When I'm just trying to make a minor adjustment, the ship seems to gravitate away from targets. I tried instead to focus on a star and it didn't have any problems. I tried multiple times against still or moving targets, joystick or trackpad... there's often some level of drift when I try and focus on a target.

It's really quite annoying.