IL-2 BoS: What are your tips to new pilots? What do you wish someone had told you?

[Jig]

As you can draw from the title, I love this game, but I'm just absolutely garbage at it. Like, I've figured out getting most of the planes into the air, and even made some pretty okay crash landings. I'm reading guides and stuff already, I just kinda want to hear some of you guys' tips and advice.

P.S.: I pretty much only play Wings of Liberty (seems to be the only server that stays populated most of the time), and I'm scared ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of accidentally friendly firing... if any of you guys know a good cheat sheet or reference to help me out, that'd be super helpful.

[Disarray]

Fly with someone who knows better than you. If you want, I can be that guy for you. This game is rock ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard alone in the MP enviroment. But if you get on comms with people things get a little easier. If you get on comms with people who can teach you things improvement comes faster.

For other things you can do to improve. Set aside some time to learn the planes you are flying with. Most of the information needed to run the planes is available in game, in terms of engine settings and handeling cherichteristics. Some of the info can be a little obtuse as it is in airplanese but once you crack the code all the secrets of all the planes are laid bare; well most of the secrets any way. Reading guides is good, but nothing beats getting hands on in my opinion. The bots are good for practising the basics, but not much else. Set up a quick mission, flick on the infinate ammo setting and go nuts to get a feel for the guns. Once you have the basics learn how the gunsight works; they seem fairly basic but there is a ton of useful information packed into that little reflector screen. Other than that, keep on keeping on. You won't learn anything in this game without falling flat on your face a few times.

[VelxraTV]

This is a good starting video. If you cannot see your enemy, you cannot fight your enemy. Also this channel has many well in depth tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfFRxCXdWVo

[JHarvey]

Practice is the key. It's hard practice while playing, so you have to define your mission parameters before you leave the ground. For instance, if your having trouble finding and identifying other aircraft, find a way to practice. I have found 2 useful ways to practice, the first is in quick missions. Set yourself up with a known target that you have trouble identifying in the game. Set yourself up with a quick mission against your practice target. Set it up so you start 'aside' you target with them either above or below you by 1000 meters and 1000-3000 meters away. Start with a short distance and increase the distance as your skill grows. When you start the mission turn toward the target and practice locating and identifying them. This will train you eyes and mind to find the small target moving against the background. As it get easier move your target further away, then starting flying a 360 before looking for your target. The second way is to sign into a target rich environment like the Berloga or other 'dogfight' server and look at airplanes. Remember, this is a training mission and you defined your objectives as learning to locate and identify other aircraft, so pick an aircraft and follow it until you can make a positive ID. Don't worry about getting shot down, you're here for training, not fighting. If you can display this sort of discipline and practice your skills it will dramatically reduce your learning curve. Also take some time to learn how to fly the aircraft in the quick missions. As part of flight training a student pilot spends a lot of time doing touch and goes in the pattern. By doing this yourself it will teach you to use the trim and control the speed of your aircraft. By developing these skills it will allow you to concentrate on other tasks then other than flying the aircraft.