I noticed today when flying a P-38 that whenever I pulled into gentle turn, and then released my stick back to neutral, my plane would pitch UP slightly before pitching down to the line of flight.
It was really noticeable when lining up gunnery shots.
So, I took the plunge. I logged off and pulled my stick's base off. Boy, was it filthy in there. There was black powder dust residue from parts that rubbed together everywhere. A nice coating of plastic dust.
I also found alot of lint and hairs in it as well.
So, out came the WD-40 cleaner. I squirted a little bit into each potentiometer and worked the stick around in circles a few times. While they were soaking I whiped out as much dirt as I could.
When I got all of this grime cleaned out I still couldn't get my stick to calibrate fully. I've been undercalibrating to the right and down. These two directions won't go full defelection for me anymore. Under calibrating the stick does the trick.
And when I got back online, it was smooth as hell.
So, the moral of the story is, if your having stick spikes, clean your joystick.
Hans.