In all my time playing VO I have used an Xbox 360 controller. It's a unique feel, and a fun way to play flight simulation and games like VO. But in VO in particular, there is a lack of true configuration. Sure you can bind commands to buttons and change the deadzone and saturation, but that's about the limit. After looking around, I found a solution. Virtual joysticks. Using a program called vJoy(a driver and exe. that allows you to function in games that don't recognise your joystick) and UJR, Universal Joystick Remapper (a graphical interface that allows you to configure joysticks, both physical and virtual) you can bind a physical device to the virtual device. You can change the behavior of the buttons and axis', the sensitivity, curves, deadzone, etc. VO will detect both your physical and virtual joystick, so be sure and disable all binds and controls to the physical controller, unless you want both to input commands in-game, which is pretty janky. Of course that opens up the possibility of putting multiple commands on one button. Configuring a controller with this method is a lot better than the in-game interface, and 1million times better than programs like Joy2key or Xpadder.I'm still playing around with it but I am currently playing at 120% sensitivity with no deadzone (the virtual joystick axis auto-centers itself, so no more joystick drag)

There are multiple tutorials on YouTube. I suggest taking a look at those before doing anything. Just search "vJoy and UJR tutorial"

This sounds like a VO wet dream come true! I am going to have to look this up the next time I become active.