Ok, first of all if you really want to feel the planes, go into setup and disable Combat Trim. That will give you a much better feel for the planes if that's what you are looking for. You can still trim the planes manually, or use the auto-trim modes to help.
1) Disabling combat trim may cure some of this. I can sure tell the difference between a spit 5 and a Jug. Between a 109f and a P51. The flight control and handling differences are just obvious to me. Try a high speed dive in a 109f. Now try it in a P51. The difference is obvious. Try looping a Zeke of the runway. Now try it with a 190. When your done crashing the 190, you'll see the difference.
The flight characteristics are not perfect, but the differences are accurate from my view. The planes perform how they should in comparison to one another. A Spit V will out-turn a Spit IX. A Zeke will out-turn anything. A Pony will out-run most anything. A Jug really shines at high-altitude. All the differences in flight modelling are there.
2) Nose bounce is generally indicative of some sort of control setup problem. This can almost always be cured by scaling your stick inputs and increasing the damping slider for the axis you are having trouble with. Rudder can be a bit of a tough one to smooth out if you have a twisty stick like I do, but pitch and roll should be smooth if you have everything set right.
3) How much joystick pressure you apply is completely irrelevent. This is all about G forces. The harder you turn and the faster you are flying when you do it, the more G's you are going to pull. When you pull too many, you begin to grey out, you get tunnel vision. Ah models this pretty well, your vision narrows until it is completely black. Pull too hard for too long and you'll black out completely. This is quite realistic.
There are a couple of planes that seem to have some odd stall behaviour, but for the most part the planes behave as they should. The F6F5 has a really nasty accelerated stall behaviour that seems overly harsh, and the P-38 has some strangeness, but it's fairly minor. The others are quite well done, and seem to portray their real traits quite well. Accelerated stalls are part of aviation, you can stall at very high speeds if you pull enough G's at high angles of attack. Oh, and BTW, it's a HECK of a lot easier to stall a WWII fighter that weighs a LOT than it is to stall a Cessna 172. Heck most WWII birds will fall out of the sky at the Cessna's cruising speed.
4) Yep, the ground doesn't tear you up. It's supposed to be grassland I guess. However, you can get one landing gear shot off in AH and still have the same tricky landing results you mention. That works just fine in AH.
Um, I'm not sure it's realism you are looking for. The blackouts in particular are pretty realistic, that's what happens when you start to go... your vision narrows. It's more realistic than having your screen suddenly go black.
BTW, I hate the default stall horn too. I use an old one that's more of a buzzer. If you email me at sconrad@hfx.eastlink.ca I'll send it to you if you like.
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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer
A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.comCheck out
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