They do, its just a case of trying to find a game :)

if i look for realistic or sim, it could take a while... yet arcade (who the **** plays arcade!!!!!!) i can usually find a game straight away and the room has at least 8 players. But i tend to leave because arcade is crap! if i wanted to fly like that in WW2 i'll play blazing angels.

I will never u/stand this mentality that the IL-2 series has associated with it. A simple look at the keyboard mapping will tell you of a 'skip' button that literally takes you to the next waypoint (aswell as providing keys for differing time compression speeds of fast forward & slow down). hitting the autopilot key & selecting 8X time compression will bring you to your action in seconds!!!
I'll readily admit that not everybody seems to want the immersive task of taking to the air, gaining altitude, joing up with your wingmen & heading off to your designated waypoint but IL-2 gives you that choice. It always has done.

You are indeed right, I apologise. Now that I think about it, the reason I quit the campaign in PF was that I did one mission over and over again, without progressing, yet not failing it either. Never bothered to look for a solution though, I'll admit.
For clarity: I am in no way opposed to the 'extended missions' option, I was just stating that I'm not so sure there is enough audience for this to actually be worth it for the developers. This is all regarding SP btw. I would love to see landings being useful in MP.

Definitely Interest in these Possible DLC Additions...
 

It's good to hear all the feedback! So yes, there definitely is interest in these possible (and *seemingly* relatively simple to program) three additions to the Training Mode.

And by the look of things, adding these additions as methods to expand the Training Mode in BoP looks like it could be a real hook for PC IL2 fans who are looking to get their sim experience from BoP but without the hassle of needing to contend with the overpopulation of online arcade players to lack of online sim players ratio. After all, if you boot up a skirmish/training scenario on sim mode versus 2-3 veteran difficulty AI bots, the fight actually turns out being somewhat close to a typical battle on a PC IL2 - which is certainly another compliment to 1C and Gaijin.

But with the said inclusion of adding 1) selectable number of and aircraft type for AI teammates, 2) useable German cockpits, and possibly 3) ability to select a set of mixed aircraft for teammates and enemies all to the training mode - the devs would be giving us fans A LOT to chew on/play with over the long run.

As for the landing and take-off feature, yeah sure, I understand that this is a little bit of a guilty pleasure for any IL2 fan and even me, when I was humbly impressed by Ace Combat's eventual inclusion of take-offs and landings back in the day. After all, like another member had posted on these boards, it's truly harrowing to try and land your swiss-cheesed crate in the midst of the storm weather option :).

So, some *possible* suggestions for adding quick and easy DLC options for the take-off/landing crowd is maybe to add an option where you select starting position in a training battle to be on the ground (ie. as one of the options on the training mode screen, it would say: Starting Position: Air, Ground [as the two selectable options for starting position]). And for landing practice maybe it can be programmed so that if you land on certain airfields on the map, you can choose to reload ammo and fuel and possibly even to 'hop out' into a new plane as a 'repair' option, if you so choose (ie. trying to land to re-arm/re-fuel/repair while being hounded by 16 angry 109s on sim mode).

So - yes, there's definitely interest in these DLC additions, so if you're listening Anton (and Anton, please be listening), these suggestions here would definitely be worthwhile in looking into. If it is at all possible to implement these few suggestions, that would forever solidify BoP as one of the best (if not *the* best) console flier in our times. And these additions don't have to all come at once - time can be taken and resources accrued before implementing all of the additions - just so long as we can see such great additions to BoP eventually.

Zero-Sen

Like your 1st post; you make the points brilliantly. There's no major changes here but what a difference these simple additions would make to the already addictive training mode.

Let's hope!!!