
I am sending this from my phone so forgive me for grammer...
So you have a joystick really similar to mine and here is what i have found to work well for me. I also just started playing less than a week ago.
The tophat worked the view which i use the mouse for so i said to myself what do i use the most DURING flight that would help...
Top Hat Up - plane goes into autoclimb
Top Hat Down - plane goes into lvl auto flight
Top Hat Right - landing gear up/down
Top Hat Left - tailhook up/down
There are two buttons to the right of my tophat which i use for my flaps the top button is flaps up and the bottem is flaps down
On the base of my joystick i have 9 buttons which are as follows
The button closest to me we will call the bottom or south portion of the joystick. The south west button is for my VOX Xmit on vox channel if i need to talk to country i use the f12 for RangeVOX Xmit
The south east buttonbrings my clipboard max and min
After that the rest is pretty much open... I also have mapd my system damage display and general informations displays to the other keys and im not using a few at the moment.
Why I have things this way...
In flight I use the mouse to 6check so view binds did me no good but in a slow speed turns it was groovey to deploy flaps and not have to look at the keyboard... Same with landing I can just keep one hand on the throttle and feather it in and the whole time never take my focus off the screen to look for a key on the keyboard. (i play alot at night in the dark for total feel of being inside that plane) I do run carrier ops with a Squad and found out about tailhook deployment the hardway so putting it oppist of gears only made sence. I am in agreence with the other guys in the fact... Fly Fly Fly and see what your using alot during flight that takes your conencration and focus off your target and use those on your stick for keybindings. Even if it a second thats enough time for a plane to roll and get into a blind spot on your canopy and break away so your eyes not comming off the screen during combat are the keys id look to bind first. Not the map and vox and silly stuff that does not HELP your combat effectiveness.
From one greenhorn too another i hope this helps.
Deadstickmac