hehe
My advice is to start off using the mission builder facility to pick a map and stick a plane on the runway (select <view object> pick a plane, put the mouse near an airfield and hit <insert>, but don't forget to go to through the tabs on the object view and select it as the player aircraft by ticking the appropriate box).
Then practise a straight run up, checklist and take off until you get it. Then do landings. You can't really play online unless you can fly a plane normally anyway, those guys are pretty skilled and will cut newbies apart...most won't even let you join their squadron without a show of your skills. Servers are usually set to full realism and no external views so it's just about like the real thing.
But you can also use the quick mission builder to just jump in a variety of different types and toss them around a bit. Make sure you go through the PDF handbook, though it skips a lot of things if you've never flown a plane before, which I tried to cover in my unofficial handbook at the Flying Legends website. I also gave a more detailed aircraft guide at the back, so detailed engine settings and important points are covered on all the major fighter types, along with basic piloting information like why wings stall and various armament combinations, in keeping with historical documentation which is pretty well modelled by the folks at 1C Maddox.
Most bomb sights are pretty accurately modelled too, you need to set (true) airspeed and altitude indicators using the sight-view (switches to the bombardier position). Don't confuse this with the gun-sight view which is the equivalent of leaning forward in a fighter cockpit to see the reflector sight more clearly (it is normally offset to the right on German fighters).
Bombing and dive bombing takes practise, it's a specialised job. Using torpedos is like skip bombing and is easier.
Mostly you need to develop the basic piloting skills, which is actually the most fun part of the game, by practising take offs and landings over and over. Good aircraft for this are your wartime advanced trainers like the P-40, Emil, Yak-7 and Hurricane. But if you're really unsteady take it straight from flying school and use the J8 flyable (it's a Gloster Gladiator with metric instruments built for Sweden), or the CR.42 biplane if you're Axis, and then move up to the high performance models.
Also, significant of technological development late-war planes handle much better than early war ones, which are pretty difficult not to crash. Jumping straight into a Hellcat or a Fw-190D-9 is far closer to flying a modern aircraft (early war fighters are more like improvised and somewhat dangerous racing planes), but it is kind of cheating if you really want to get the wartime experience.
A very nice early war type to fly is the Me-109F or Zero. The Messerschmitt has auto flight management so flies itself even at full realism, whilst the Zero is good when you're ready to start playing with multiple speed superchargers and altitude mixture settings. Both are pretty easy for a novice to fly.
IL2 1946
Re: IL2 1946
