the one thing i did like was the tracers...was reminiscent of some of the gun camera footage.

Nope.
There are bullet holes appearing eactly where a bullet have hit the plane.
However, there is level-of-destruction for planes as well (3 of them for each big part of the plane), which are pre-defined indeed.
So, you saw the hits where they should be, but if plane's wing was hit with a certain amount of destruction (wing was tored off, for example) - it will be tored off same way. But before that wou will likely to see unique sub-level of destructions (holes), especially if you were damaged with lesser bullets (not direct hit of 30mm cannon).

Anton, I think you have described what crashlanding ment as he was talking about an aircraft part like a wing, not the whole plane.

Strange you say that about the wing tearing though, because I would swear ive seen wings get torn of in different places. Sometimes the whole wing is shot off other times in say a colision just the tip, maybe i'm getting confused with Il-2 1946 and Flight adventure 2?

Thanks for the reply.

I could be mistaken, but it appears to me when I'm being shot at, though not always taking damage, my wings instantly look like the same shot-up swiss cheese every time. Of course bigger holes develop with more shooting (and contact) but before then it looked to me to just be a specific texture for the aircraft.

Of course I'll concede to the actual developer. My perception is apparently wrong. ;)

There are different places, but limited count of these places.