so, my joystick is getting old now (10 years), and is starting to behave somewhat erratically, especially the rudder control starts banging from side to side if left idle, so i plan on calibrating/filetring it.

anyone knows how the alibrating system in IL2 works?

There's a deadband and filtering setting built in to the game. You can configure it by:

• Using the sliders provided in the game Input section
  
• By manually editing the input settings in the conf.ini file (there are instructions in the "Joysticks & IL2/FB/PF" article linked in my signature)
  
• By using either of the two joystick utilities linked in my signature.

It might just be worn out (the coils/sensors/magnets) so you might have to face buying a new stick...