If you patch CFS3 and get some mods, maybe it's not so bad. I bought it the day it came out, and gave it away days later for free to the first person who answered my post. CFS1 was great CFS2 was good fun. No.3 let me down.

IL2-Forgotten Battles is the Holy Grail (for now) of flight sims and well worth the cash.

To your dilemna: do you have a flightstick? If not, buy a Microsoft Sidewinder, a Force Feedback model if you can afford it (or find it),but any Sidewindeer will do. Very tough, very easy to program. If not, buy another brand that has a twist function in the handle. The twist action in the handle that works the plane's rudders is a **HUGE** help in flying and manuevering. Cannot be overstated.

Chose the most stable, easy to fly plane, a Hurricane maybe, and practice, practice, practice. Try lots of low-level fly overs of the runway, over and over, just to see where your weak points are in pointing your planes direction. Then practice your landings, over and over. Besides, practice is fun.

As for combat. Set up an enemy plane that has no guns, like a fat slow C-47, and practice just flying behind it. Play with speed and altitude, experiment. Then rip the **** out of it with short, aimed burst. Don't spray & pray. Short burts to slow it down, longer burts when it is crippled and can't dodge around.

Head over to IL2sturmovik.com and check out the threads that list flying tips. Great help is to be had there.