Does this count as progress?
I got back from my flying..plucked up the courage..searched out the files and added the three lines of text that Jet-Set told me about.
Now I have a joystick that gives me pitch and roll - and one fire button for the brakes. Congratulations to Jet-set.
However, this means that I have managed to bring the $140 (£85) Microsoft joystick up to the level of the $10 (£6) joystick that I was using before - without any problems.
I then found a file "sbw9xup.exe" on the Creative Labs page - supposed to be new Windows95/98 drivers for the card.
Downloaded it...and lost it somewhere in the machine (again). Doesn't seem to ahve made any difference.