Please help with a few missions (long)

[DaveE30]

I got the game about a week ago for PS3 and I'm addicted. I have the Thrustmaster Hotas stick; I can't imaging how hard the controls would be on a regular controller. Anyway, there are a couple missions I can't get over the hump on, some of which I know have been discussed.

First is the initial "single mission" in the Battle of Britain, called Manston. I play in Arcade mode because I have a lot of trouble in Realistic (tried it-- I'll play in this mode after I beat Arcade). There are 8 Bf109s that I have to take out, and as many have mentioned, the rest of the flight/wingmen aren't very helpful. The best I've done is 5 kills, but the mission always ends in exactly 4 min 54 sec. I can't destroy that many aircraft in that little time. Any tips on how I can do this? From what I've read, Realistic mode drops the enemies to only 4 bogies, but I still won't be able to shoot them down in 5 min. Are my wingmen better in Realistic?

The second single mission giving me trouble is the one in which I have to inspect 3 airfields. I have a couple problems with this; the airfield on the top right is easy to land in because it's a very long strip. However, after I stop, the engine cuts out and I can't throttle up anymore. That's essentially like losing one pilot. The second airfield is MUCH shorter and seems to be grass; I have a lot of trouble even seeing where it starts and ends, and because it's so short and I have no brakes, I always roll off into the surrounding field and crash. End of mission. How do I land on these short fields? The thing that I hate about this mission is that it takes almost 5 minutes just to get from one field to the next, very annoying.

Finally, the third mission is in the Russian campaign-- yes, the Hornet's Nest. I read the 3 or so threads about this, and concluded that the only way to beat it is in Realistic mode. Is this really the case? I've shot down 12 Ju52s and still lost the mission, I've read about how some guys shot down 30 and still lost! The wingmen help a lot in this mission, but still not enough. I've tried shotting rockets into the bomber formation but it didn't work. Is the strategy to send the flight to one formation, while I head to another formation? Is it possible to beat this in Arcade mode?


edit: one more thing-- the Hotas stick has a HUGE deadzone in the throttle, at 55%. Any way to remove this? I'm less distracted by the deadzone in the stick.