Welcome to Aces High!
If you are new to AH and flight sims in general, I recommend starting out with ground vehicles, and/or bombers. Flying fighters effectively is an extremely complex task. It usually takes months, if not years, just to become an average AH fighter pilot.
Ground vehicles, on the other hand, are much more intuitive to operate effectively. The driving and gunnery aspects are basic, and simple. Defend a base with an M-16, and you will get kills on your first day. In only a few days, or weeks, you can become a very effective tanker, or AA gunner. If you do not have a joystick, and are using a mouse, ground vehicles are the way to go. It is relatively difficult to kill yourself in a ground vehicle, even if you are driving with a mouse. Running into field structures, and tipping over while coasting rapidly down a hill, are about the only way that you can do yourself in.
Flying and defending bombers effectively is also a much simpler and speedier task to learn than mastering fighters. The three modes of autopilot (Level, Climb Angle, and Climb Speed) help even the best of us get around, without having to "fly" the airplane. Making turns from the bombardiers seat (or gun position) ensures that even a novice will not lose control of their aircraft. (Aircraft attitude is mostly controlled by the autopilot from these positions.).
As long as you invest time to climb to high altitudes (20 - 30K), few fighters will bother you. When they do, it is usually one on one, and even a novice stands a fair chance of putting up a good defense. Gunning is mostly intuitive,... just shoot a little in front of him. It's kind of like duck hunting from the sunroof of an automobile (Not that I have ever done this!). Choosing a target that is not swarming with enemy is also wise, and will help keep you alive. (So far in Tour 6, out of about 24 B-17 sorties, I have only had 1 fighter get within shooting distance of my bomber!). I recommend the B-17 over the B-26 for newbies because it has good defensive guns at all angles (I fly the B-17 myself, almost exclusively, largely for this reason). The B-26, on the other hand, often has to be flown like a fighter to protect itself against fighter attack from various angles (fun if you are a good fighter pilot).
Dropping bombs is also intuitive and simple. It just takes a little bit of practice to get used to operating the Norden Bomb Sight.
Often, the most difficult task for someone who is new to flight sims is landing. I have seen relatively new flight sim pilots achieve nearly 100% bombing accuracy, shoot down most of their attackers, and yet crack-up most landings. I am making this point to illustrate how easy it can be to become an effective bomber pilot, without even truly learning to "fly".
By starting out with something that you can quickly master, you will avoid becoming frustrated (in fighters) before you give this great hobby a fair chance. Learning fighter skills and tactics takes a lot of time. You will most likely get shot down quite a few times before you even begin to figure out what you can do about it, let alone shoot someone else down. In this game, many good opportunities for different types of vehicles and aircraft arise, at different times. Sometimes there are several good opportunities to drive tanks, sometimes there are none. The same can be said about fighters, bombers, M-16s, M-3s and C-47s. By spending relatively a little bit of time learning how to operate Panzers, M-16s, M-3s, B-17s and C-47s, you can take advantage of what vehicle has the best opportunity at that given moment. Save flying fighters for opportunities when you will not get blasted on take-off! Learn to fly them when you have friendly aircraft around to protect you. When you get tired of being cannon fodder in a fighter, you can always go blast someone in your panzer!
Eskimo
AH Trainer.
[This message has been edited by eskimo (edited 07-25-2000).]
