Profiles
A profile is a complete set of tuning values — every slider on the Tuning page — saved under a name. Profiles are local files. They don't sync, they don't phone home, and you can copy them between machines with plain filesystem tools. The Profiles page is built for a growing library: starter profiles and your own saved profiles share one searchable list, and the active profile is highlighted.
Profiles stores force-feedback settings. Aircraft Library is the separate AirframeDB reading and reference view. Choosing a simulator edition in Aircraft Library does not apply or edit a profile, and a profile auto-select match does not guarantee an exact AirframeDB edition match.
Where profiles live
- Windows
%APPDATA%\ffb-bridge\profiles\ - Linux
~/.config/ffb-bridge/profiles/(honours$XDG_CONFIG_HOMEwhen set) - macOS
~/.config/ffb-bridge/profiles/
Each saved profile is a single JSON file named after the profile, with spaces replaced by dashes and invalid filename characters replaced. Copying one across machines is as simple as putting the file in the same folder on the other side.
One library
The list includes both built-in starters and profiles you have saved. Each row shows an origin chip, modified date, size, and whether it is active. Use search and sort when the list gets long, select a row to see its details, then click Use this profile to apply it immediately.
Starter presets
The app includes 14 named aircraft starters plus three generic helicopter trim families. Built-in starters are read-only; duplicate one to make an editable profile.
- Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000)
- Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
- CubCrafters XCub (Cub class)
- Diamond DA40
- Daher TBM 930
- Beechcraft King Air 350i
- North American P-51D Mustang
- Extra 300
- Airbus H125 (Helicopter)
- Bell 206 JetRanger (Helicopter)
- Helicopter — light trim springs (generic)
- Helicopter — AFCS trim (generic)
- Helicopter — classic force trim (generic)
- Airbus A320neo
- Boeing 737-800
- Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental
- Alexander Schleicher AS 33
Starters provide a safe baseline for further tuning. Load the closest one to the aircraft you are flying, test the feel, then use Save as… or Duplicate… to create an editable copy.
Research behind the built-in profiles
The built-in starters have accompanying control-feel research, including pilot accounts and published technical references. These explain the intended loading, centring and control harmony behind a starting profile. A profile is still an approximation on your hardware; use it as a baseline and tune for the simulated aircraft.
- Aircraft with direct cable or rod controls use a physical V-squared airspeed-load law, so control effort grows with dynamic pressure the way it does in the aircraft.
- Centring keeps firming as speed builds instead of going flat once the controls come alive at rotation.
- Each starter carries its documented pitch-to-roll harmony rather than a single house ratio.
The research behind each aircraft — the sources, the force mix, and the canonical starter baseline, with a citation on individual values — is published in the starter aircraft research. Use it when a starter feels wrong to you: it shows what the value was meant to reproduce before you change it.
Starter lineage
A profile you save records which starter it was forked from. A profile shared to the library can therefore show exactly what you changed against that baseline, which makes a shared profile reviewable instead of opaque. The lineage is a starter reference and your own changes; it is not a record of how you fly.
Auto-select by aircraft
Loading an aircraft in MSFS or X-Plane that matches one of the starter profiles auto-selects it on first encounter — no manual binding needed. The bridge matches against the sim-reported aircraft title and ICAO code, covering the Asobo defaults, the X-Plane 12 defaults, common community variants, and the standard ICAO type codes. For example, loading Asobo Daher TBM 930, TBM 930 Asobo, or X-Plane 12's TBM 900 all auto-pick the Daher TBM 930 starter.
Once you save your own profile (Save as… from Tuning, or Duplicate from this page) and bind it to the current aircraft, that binding wins on every future load. The starter fallback only fires when there's no explicit user binding for the aircraft.
Auto-select is enabled by default; the toggle lives on the Tuning page's Profile card under Aircraft auto-select. The status line beneath it always shows you which profile the bridge will pick for the current aircraft, so you can verify before flying.
Saving a profile
The shortest path: go to Tuning, adjust until it feels right, click Save as…. Name it after the aircraft — Cessna 172 — my feel, King Air C90 — heavy roll, etc. The new profile becomes the active profile immediately.
Search by aircraft, saved name, or path; sort by name or modified time; import a profile JSON file; then use, share, duplicate, rename, or delete the selected entry as allowed. The library watches the profile folder and refreshes automatically.
- Use this profile — make the selected starter or saved profile active without visiting Tuning.
- Duplicate… — clone a starter or saved profile under a new name.
- Delete… — remove a saved profile with confirmation. Starter profiles cannot be deleted.
Switching profiles in flight
Loading a profile from Profiles, the top picker or Tuning applies its values to the active force model. The control can change feel if forces are armed. Check the selected profile and save wanted edits before switching; the top strip and Profiles list identify the same active profile.
If you'd modified the previous profile's sliders without saving, switching away discards those changes. The profile picker shows an amber dot whenever the active profile is dirty — if you see it, save before loading.
Sharing profiles by hand
Use Import file… on the Profiles page to select a downloaded or received JSON profile. You can also copy a profile file such as
Cessna-172-smooth.jsoninto your profiles folder. The library watches that folder and refreshes when files change. Review the imported settings and your hardware limits before applying it.
The community Profile Library
There's also a public Profile Library at ffb-bridge.com/profiles. Browse by aircraft and download a profile, then choose Import file… in the app. Reading and downloading public profiles does not require a community account.
To publish a profile you made, select it on the in-app Profiles page and click the globe Share action. The app hands the profile to the library with the submission form already filled in — the aircraft, your stick, and the profile details — so you only add a short note and publish. You sign in to the community site only at the moment you publish; nothing is uploaded silently, and the profile file itself never carries your email or any account identity. Built-in starter profiles can't be shared, to keep the library from filling up with copies of the defaults.
A community forum lives alongside the library at ffb-bridge.com/community.
The portable profile format
Shared profiles travel in a forward-compatible document that wraps the tuning values with descriptive metadata — a stable identity, title, the aircraft and simulators it was validated on, and the hardware it was made for — so the library can index and filter them, and so a profile made in one version of FFB-Bridge keeps working in later ones. When you import a profile from an older app version, it is migrated up to the current shape automatically. Plain hand-copied profile files (the bare JSON described below) are still read without any conversion.
Shared profiles carry only a public display handle you choose (or “Anonymous”) for attribution — never your email. They are offered as-is for use within the FFB-Bridge community and may not be sold or commercially redistributed; the full terms are linked from the library.
The JSON schema
The portable format is a versioned ffb-bridge.profile envelope with a force-model module. Import and export through the app; the schema evolves and older profiles are migrated, so do not copy fields from an old example or depend on their internal layout.
A zero effect gain or authority turns that contribution off. Other enabled effects and armed hardware resistance can still be felt. Some features, including AP neutral hold, also have an explicit enable control; check the relevant section when isolating a force.
You generally shouldn't need to hand-edit these — the Tuning page is faster — but reading them to diff two profiles (git diff cessna-defaults.json cessna-my-feel.json) is often the quickest way to see what you actually changed.