Good advice from everyone here. One I would like to put some emphasis on is the convergence range for your guns. You set it at the "arming" screen before takeoff. Many prefer to set it at about 200 meters, but there are many "schools". The important thing is that a "clean" shot straight behind your enemys tail is NOT easy in IL2. There is no "hitbox" so the bullets really need to hit those thin wings or the narrow fuselage. With the wrong convergence you will almost never hit and get frustrated (you will in the first 20 hours of gameplay, but long time veterans have problems with the convergence too so don't give up). It is often easier to hit with a bit of deflection (not straight from behind). The really juicy targets are slowly climbing planes that you hit slight from above. Much more plane to hit... By the way, the number next to the plane ("0.23" etc) is the range in meters (230 meters when it says .23).
Here are some articles about convergence an IL2 aerial gunnery:
http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/2002/02/a2a2/
http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_312a.html
Ground attacks may also be a bit hard in the beginning (many crashes into the ground near the target
). Here's an article about that:
http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_307g.html
EDIT: The tool called IL2 compare is really good to compare the performance of different planes in IL2. Does a Spitfire Mk Vb really turn better than a Me 109 G2 at 360 km/h? Which is the better climbing aircraft of the FW 190 A8 and the P47 D-10? Really good to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the different aircraft... Just like Bobb4 I would recommend the 109 in the beginning. Its rather midrange in twitchiness etc... It was the first fighter for the olde ones here as it was in the original demo, so I may be biased
Link to download IL2 compare:
http://war.by-airforce.com/downloads...pare-4.07.html
Good luck! /Mazex