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This is a picture of my Gladiator MK.2.  I have the obvious axis and twist rudder mapped and the left side has the throttle + flaps button.  The right side has a big red EJECT button that I mapped to the parking brake but I have these nine buttons on the front free to map to anything.  I'm thinking I need a trim up and down and a toggle cockpit button camera but what else should I do with the remaining 7?  What do you think is necessary to have?

Edit:  The button on top is toggle landing gear and the trigger is my brake + the hat switch is look around.

I have a 12-button joystick.  These are my essentials that I've used for years. 

Trim up 
Trim down
Left brake (I don't have rudder pedals)
Right brake
Flap increase
Flap Decrease
Spoilers
Landing Gear
Reverse Thrust toggle
Re-center view
Change view
ATC window

Edited August 18, 20205 yr by marc1184

21 minutes ago, marc1184 said:

I have a 12-button joystick.  These are my essentials that I've used for years. 

Trim up 
Trim down
Left brake (I don't have rudder pedals)
Right brake
Flap increase
Flap Decrease
Spoilers
Landing Gear
Reverse Thrust toggle
Re-center view
Change view
ATC window

Do you think it's essential to have left and right brakes over just a general brake button?

No, just use the single brake assignment. I usually put that on what would be the "fire" button on most joysticks. The very front one your index finger goes on. That way it's right there when you touch down. 

Edited August 18, 20205 yr by bonchie

1 minute ago, vMambaaa said:

Do you think it's essential to have left and right brakes over just a general brake button?

No, it's not.

You already have 2 buttons for flaps so I would map one of them to increase flaps incrementally and the other to decrease incrementally, you never increase/decrease flaps in one go.

Map one of the B/C combinations to elevator trim up/down. remember in a real aircraft you pull back on the trim wheel to trim nose up.

You don't need separate left/right brakes but I would map a button for brakes, no need for parking brake, you can do that with the keyboard. Most, if not all, joystick mappings should be to control stuff while you are flying.

So other things to map:- thrust reversers, landing gear, spoilers, and if flying prop aircraft you need prop control and mixture control. If FS2020 allows you to map to each aircraft then you can double up on the controls which are specific to the type of aircraft, so if flying jets you don't need prop or mixture. For jets you may need fuel cut-off but again this can be mapped to keyboard because you would be on the ground when you need to use them.

Have fun

27 minutes ago, vMambaaa said:

Do you think it's essential to have left and right brakes over just a general brake button?

Essential in this game NO.
Toe brakes are nice to have when simulating steering an aircraft with castering wheels.  Also since they are part of a rudder pedal hardware addon,  You can also use them to steer airplanes with steerable nose wheels. (afaik we have no tiller controls in the sim) In addition you get rudder control so you can simulate control/counter of adverse yaw, p-factor, and coordinated flight, maneuvers, etc.

Edited August 18, 20205 yr by RamonB

I do not know if it's the case in MSFS, but back in FSX:SE the default brake key command will lock up the wheels with full braking. There was a command in FSX:SE to toggle anti-skid, thus enabling any plane to have anti-skid. Important where there is no physical or audible feedback in the sim to know if you've locked the wheels or not..

It may be something to look for in the new sim, just thought it was worth mentioning...

Essential, no, but I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, so there are trigger and thumb buttons on the hat.  Makes it much easier to steer the planes while taxiing, and there isn't really another button that I just had to have that would replace them.  I used them both a lot during the alpha/beta as many of the aircraft were sluggish on steering, and using left and right brake helped a lot.  Haven't tried the release version yet to see if it's any different.

Also, I played with another way to use the 2 buttons on the hat.  One for all brakes, and one for the smart camera.  On approach, pushing the smart camera will lock on to the end of the runway, so you can fly the pattern, and just push that button to see where you are.  It'll lock the view when pushed, so as your airplane turns, your view moves with it.

I fly GA a lot so I have mixture rich/lean and prop rpm up/down mapped to my joystick.  Along with:  gear, flaps up/down, brakes, pitch trip up/down, and two buttons that control views (inside/outside toggle, and view reset)