General Flight Simulator help.

[mbtigger]

Whenever I have enjoyed dogfighting games, they have been the arcade style shoot'em ups like Crimson skies for the original xbox. I have little, if any, knowledge on flight sims. Playing this game on realistic has proved quite a challenge, especially since I do not have a flight stick. I suppose I am looking for a good general primer on things like when and how to use the rudder- when and how to make specific maneuvers. How close do I need to be before my guns will have any effect at all? The encyclopedia gives SOME information on maneuvers, but it seems like it is missing quite a bit - or maybe I need to unlock more info. Still it would be nice to have a good primer on HOW to "Fly" in a simulator. Does something like that exist?

I have made it through the BoB section (on realistic) and am in Stalingrad using that little I-16 type 24. I am finding it ridiculously difficult to shoot down anything. There is a bit of a turning advantage, but it seems that I only get a few shots off before the 109's are a click away and I and have to look around for a new target. I can avoid getting hit too much with some good turns and barrel rolls (provided I don't stall to bad). But I can't finish the scenarios! I run out of time because I am not able to target birds in the air of tanks on the ground. Thanks to the folks here I have been lowering the sensitivity of the elevators and ailerons, but it's REALLY obvious that I have NO idea what I am doing and I need to learn a lot if I EVER want to go past Stalingrad on Realistic or give Sim mode a try.

MB