You will find the controls will become quite natural even if you do have 19,000 buttons and 8 hats to work with!
I find setup actually takes approximately 45 minutes as it is a teaching process.
The flying part will be somewhat similar but you will immediately notice improved views as HTC has allowed folks to "shift" their head positions to look around things like headrests and canopy framework. Just like in a real plane you can have a somewhat unrestricted view of the bandit throughout the whole fight. Having unrestrictive view makes a fight a lot more enjoyable as you can actually watch mistakes as they happen and capitolize on them.
As mentioned above you can set views to your liking which is great! However, you must do it for each aircraft you plan to fly. The good news is you only have to do it once. Even with updates to the game the settings remain in place. My suggestion is you pick a plane you'd like to begin with, and we can set up the views and controls. Then as your aircraft choice changes you can spend 5 minutes and setup views for your new ride. After you've adjusted your views on a plane or two doing new planes goes pretty fast.
Controls are a little different. With your new CH gear you can actually take the keyboard out of the flying equation and move to a complete HOTAS setup. Gear, flaps, WEP (War Emergency Power or Firewalling her), airbrakes, ground brakes (differential braking, too!). Mic/radio's, damage report, map controllers, zoom view, guns, bombs(eggs), rockets (rocs), the 3 different type auto pilots, to name a few will be at your fingertips.
Along with push buttons you can also control the sensitivity of your joystick/rudder inputs to suit your individual requirements. We can go so far as to adjust your pitch sensitivity so black out will never be an issue. Rudders can be adjusted to allow additional aiming capabilities. In other words, you don't to have your nose spot on when all you need do is step on a little rudder. Barrel roll offence and defence becomes a simple affair.
All of this can be accomplished in 45 minutes.
Thursday is also a better day for me seein as how we expect lotsa lil ones running up to the door this afternoon and into the evening. I have someone coming over to pick up a day bed Thursday evening. I'm not quite sure when so we may take a 5 minute break somewhere during the setup period. It's already paid for so it just needs to be carried out of the house to his truck. I'd suggest anytime after 5:30 pm CT if that works for you.
