It would certainly help to have a quick start PDF, that states this feature, so people are aware of the problem with no axis available without just telling them to read the manual. I had no assigned axis the other day, when I fired up X-Plane, even though it was shut down prior without locking them. Although being aware of the issue, it took me 3 restarts of X-Plane to get the axis functioning again. I also don't find the warning explanation in red type about handling the locking feature in the manual written very clearly. I read that at least 4 times and still wasn't so sure about how it works, but maybe I am the problem here, since I am not a native speaker.