Had the same problem as well as AVG informing me of a virus as part of the loader!
The game ran but the planes and pilots were not displayed and when I ran a mission it would just show the last screen but give me sound.
After an hour of fun i got everything working and thats how it stayed until tonight.
This morning I allowed AVG to pass the software and all ran OK. Tonight I was back to problems, the video driver was reportin that it had crashed under starting the game, a blank screen just before the epi splash screen. I loaded the latest driver as well as the beta driver, still no luck
I then left it alone to try for an answer on the net only to suddenly think the only thing I had not done was disable the antivirus.
I tried this and it worked
Every thing has now slowed though so I'm going to roll the driver back too see if I can get back to a flyable rig
Fingers crossed as it is a stunning game
Thanks to every one involved in this venture and my wishes to the few who did this for real