Looking around with the hat swtich will get you killed in this sim. Never had a problem using hat switches until Rise Of Flight.
It's not that you can't use them, or that they don't work. It's just that, in the close quarters fighting of 1918 French skies, the hat swtiches just don't work fast enough. You can't track an enemy airplane with it. You will lose him quickly and as the old fighter pilot saying goes.."Lose sight, lose fight!"
I have a Saitek X42. I was getting butchered with it, on line. It has rudder controls on the throttle handle.
I realized that if I was going to survive, it was gonna be, get track ir, or use the mouse! I chose the cheaper of the two alternatives. Naturally, to use the mouse I needed to free up my left hand. So I broke out my old Logitech, Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick. It has a twist grip for the rudder control. I could do all my flying with my right hand. And my left hand was freed to use the mouse look.
Works for me. Very well, as a matter of fact. I finally started to get kills. You can look around VERY fast with the mouse. You might want to look into this. If you use the hat switch on-line, you're going to find it quite frustrating. At least, I did.
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"From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it, and strive to live as one in peace."
Astronaut William C. McCool RIP, January 29, 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia