I've been flying Il-2 on PC, since Forgotten Battles. Then I gradually levitated to finally getting '46 when it came out in '07. It's a really great flight sim, and is highly accurate with the planes. There's nearly 200+ planes to fly, and some that weren't now are because like Panther said, people have modded in cockpits for them. Like a few heavy bombers, and a few Japanese planes of various kinds. It's pretty sweet, and I had to buy a whole new computer and everything just to be able to play it once again because there was no way I could upgrade my old computer on the budget I had at the time, and have money for other things. (I can run the whole game with no lag or anything, at the highest graphics with all the graphic upgrades '46 has so far.)
But my opinion on Il-2 '46 is to BUY IT!!!!
It does have a large learning curve at first, if you're not familiar with flying already, and haven't gotten the hang of how to change fuel mixture, and what Panther also mentioned. It's a really great game once you get the hang of it, and compared to the people playing '46 and BoP, it's not contest. I'd say there are at least 100+ servers at certain times going on in '46, and all of them are different for everyone's skill level. (I'm usually up late on '46 when the Aussies are just getting on because of my work hours, and they don't like me much because when I find them flying a Pacific game in Allied fighters, what better way to make them remember WW2 Australia, than to fly Japanese right? Yeah, I get yelled at sometimes by Aussies for that.
)