you could write yourself a glovepie macro to run in the background when the game is running. you need a trigger action. something like pressing on the wheel brake will kick it off.

here's simple example:

ppjoy1.analog0 = joystick1.x (these would be your peddles as Glovepie might see them, an axis range -1 to 1, but I'm not sure how it would actually see them.)

//90 degree fov macro

if ppjoy1.analog0 = -1 then
key.pagedown=true
key.pagedown=false
endif

so, in this simple example. I press wheelbrake and signal is -1. this causes glovepie to toggle the pagedown key. this action will occur every time i press the peddles. if you want to do "no cockpit" you can put those keys in there too.

so, no more pressing a bunch of keys, but you would still have to run glovepie in the background while the game is running. but you could put it in a dos batch file to start the two programs (il-2 and glovepie) simultaneously. that wouldn't be so bad.

MadBlaster's idea is good... here are two more:

1. The guy who built the cockpit must have used a USB-connected controller-board to connect the levers to the computer... Most probably, this board *also* supports a number joystick buttons (uusually 32). I guess that the fire-button is connected there, too. Connect one big red button to that board and use glovepie or autohotkey as MadBlaster described. Label that button "Press me!"

2. Write a small program that
a) uses DeviceLink to determine if the player has entered the cockpit and
b) then sends the needed key-combinations to IL-2

Artist.