Welcome FA guys - hope you find AH2 a worthy alternative. You'll find the majority of people here will be welcoming and only too happy to help with the transition. The small number of prats we have to deal with area easily ignored.
Regarding Track IR - ignore anyone recommending it. What will happen if you try it is that when you're not flying into the ground trying to track some guy above you, you'll be barfing into a wastepaper basket beside your computer. Or maybe that's just me

Seriously, many of my squadies swear by it, but I just can't get to grips with it. I'm a natural head mover - my head moves in the same direction as my joystick - and that just doesn't work with track-ir. As other have said, the views in AH2 are pretty good without it.
Once again - welcome.