I spent a lot of time with IL-2, because I saw some good aspects and
great potential within the game. It was definately no 'junk'.
I tried many different combinations in joy stick calibration before the
game. .... deadband, filtering and scaling you name it.
The filtering is the main reason behind the super twitchy roll
responses. It messes up the response time of "no aileron input"
status. Thus, even after you centered the stick after a certain bank
angle, the system doesn't recognize it.
Another thing is, rudder response is also super twitchy. I use a MS
Precision Pro (older version) Stick. The rudder function is implemented
by the 'twisty stick base'. Even a slightest touch of the base sets my
rudder input to max. I had to practically dampen, smother, and kill this
response by fiddling with the scale, filter and deadband.
After this painstaking process was through(I think I recalibrated my
stick about 20 times), my feel on the planes weren't much different
from AH like others have said before me. I don't seem to feel any sort
of strange, or unfamiliar responses. Of course overall, it isn't as crisp
clear as AH, but it wasn't too wierd either. A little less predictable than
AH, that was all.
The overall problem I've noticed with IL-2, the
REAL problem behind
the trickiness in handling, is the fact that some planes accelerate just
too fast, and other planes(LW planes

) accelerate like a slug.
I've heard of a phenomenon where a plane's initial acceleration rate
is determined by how fast you are going. Which means the slower you
are the lower your accel. rate, the faster you are the higher your accel.
rate. In some planes, this phenomenon is just too extreme. Perfectly
trimmed, careful control.. you can barely accelerate it up to 400kph
in level flight. Give it a slow dive, finally speed up to about 500~600
kph, the usual speed we would fight in AH... make one move, the speed
drops to bottom and doesn't come back up. Overheat that damn engine
and it would still recover only about 70% of the speed before.
Thus, in IL-2, we usually fly and fight in about 150~250 mph speed
area. Imagine we fly and fight in 109s at 150~250mph in the AH MA.
These sort of goofy accelerations make it almost impossible to enjoy
flying, fighting in a plane that responds crisp and well.(IL-2 FM isn't
that bad if you fly planes that hold constant high speeds...)
There is a possibility that AH, with everyone running their engine at
max pitch max throttle constantly may be a bit too crisp. Too easy to
handle planes. But in the case of IL-2, the engine power and acceleration
factor is just too extreme.
..
ps) Thus, in Multiplayer games, people exclusively fly so called 'ubers'
, especially La-5FNs, which compared to AH La-5FNs, seem to hold
low speed sustained turn awfully good. (feels like spitfires, the damn
basta*ds)
ps2) conclusions: flying IL-2 multiplayer with plane limit(~1942) is really
fun, since everybody has trouble maintaining there planes to do
something. Playing most other FFA games just plain suck.