Documentation in beta. Some text and images will be reworked as the app settles into 1.0. If a section reads stale, flag it via the feedback form.

Dashboard

The Dashboard answers the question "what is the bridge doing right now?" Flight state is on the left, stick activity is on the right, and operational state stays in the persistent top strip. Use it as a quick inspection page before and after tuning changes: Tuning is where you adjust gains, while Dashboard shows what the sim is currently reporting and which force channels the bridge is sending to the stick.

Annotated FFB-Bridge dashboard: flight-state panel on the left, force-output panel on the right, persistent top operational strip
Figure 1. Dashboard layout. Left: flight state and effect-group controls. Right: stick activity, active channels, axis load, and centring spring state. Operational state — arm, sim, device, mode, profile — sits in the persistent top strip.

Flight state panel

The flight-state panel shows what the sim is telling the bridge. From the top:

  • Three numeric readouts in a row — AIRSPEED (kt), G-LOAD (g, turning amber when outside the normal range), MACH.
  • ELEVATOR and AILERON deflection on a pair of BiBars — bidirectional meters with zero at centre, full-scale at the edges, and a signed numeric value to the right of each label.
  • A small block of secondary readouts below the bars: elevator trim (signed), ground state (in air / on ground), and stall warning (turning amber when active).

Everything refreshes at roughly 20 Hz — the UI is a decimated view of the 50 Hz control loop underneath.

Effect groups

The bottom of the flight-state panel groups the force model into larger, readable families. Each row has a checkbox, a short live status, and a compact level bar:

  • Stick feel — baseline spring, G-load stiffness, trim centre, dynamic deadband, rate damping, control-edge feel, and stick drop.
  • Engine rumble — powerplant vibration from engine RPM and combustion state.
  • Airframe buffet — stall, overspeed, Mach, spoiler, and turbulence cues.
  • Ground roll — runway rumble, brake shudder, touchdown thump, and gear bumps.
  • Mech. shoulders — gear-deploy and flap-step one-shots. Held effects show as held rather than constantly active.
  • Axis load — airspeed-loaded pitch and roll constant forces.
  • Autopilot follow — spring-centre following while the AP is commanding the aircraft.

These are quick-mute controls for in-flight A/B comparisons. If engine rumble masks a buffet you are tuning, untick it, fly the same manoeuvre, then turn it back on. Toggling a group does not change the per-effect gains on the Tuning page; it gates that group's contribution in the active profile.

Stick activity panel

The right side explains what the bridge is sending on this tick. The headline names the strongest dynamic contributors, the stacked activity bar groups them by family, and the large activity number gives a quick sense of how busy the stick should feel.

The baseline centring spring is treated separately from dynamic effects. You will usually feel spring centring even when no rumble, buffet, or axis-load channel is active. That is why the active channel list focuses on changes above the baseline: trim centre, G-load spring changes, airspeed-loaded pitch / roll, engine rumble, ground roll, buffets, and mechanical one-shots.

Active channels are shown as chips with signed or scalar values. A chip appears only when that channel is doing something visible enough to matter. This keeps the page from being a wall of zeros while still showing engine rumble, turbulence, flap step, trim centre, or spring changes when they are present.

Axis load shows the signed pitch and roll constant forces after the force model has summed them. Centring spring shows the current spring coefficient, deadband, and pitch / roll centre. If MSFS is paused, dynamic forces go quiet and this section should settle to a neutral default spring rather than going limp.

Operational strip

Arming, connection state, mode, profile switching, and Save stay in the persistent top status strip. They are not Dashboard-only controls:

  • ARM gauge — top strip, centre. Click to arm / disarm. See Arming the stick.
  • SIM / DEVICE / MODE lamps — top strip. Each is colour-coded; if the stick stops working, the lamp that is red tells you why.
  • Profile picker + Tune / Save button — top strip, right side. The active profile is highlighted in the picker; the Save button shows up whenever you have unsaved tuning changes.

What the Dashboard does NOT do

The Dashboard is not a replacement for Tuning. It shows what is happening and lets you mute groups quickly, but per-effect gains stay on Tuning. To manage a large profile library, use Profiles. To diagnose a connection issue, use Doctor.

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