S!
Tested the thing mentioned that if choosing Quick Mission and Free Flight over France you get FPS hit. It is there and quite a noticeable one. When over town you can easily get normally like 20-40fps, but when looking at the industrial sector = drops to less than 10fps with the industrial buildings in view.
About the needles. Well, no need to make them rock solid or bouncing bunnies either. Just make them realistic among other things. I work with planes(military) and see a thing or two there as well IvanK
Nevertheless, keep up with performance updates and bug fixes. These will unleash the full potential of CoD and make it what it should have been from the start.