What new plane?

I think you've figured it out yourself, but anyway, here's my take:

 

- WWII aircraft: hard to fly, easy to operate. Except mustang, that one is quite easy to land and take-off, the other three are much less forgiving. Generally WWII is poorly represented in DCS (abysmal AI, poor DM, lacking assets).

- FC3 aircraft: relatively easy but hindered by the lack of clickable pits and very simplified systems. Can't navigate properly, need to remember dozens of keyboard shortcuts, but you can at least learn the basics of flying and combat.

- F-86, MiG-15, F-5, L-39: easy to fly and easy to learn, you can quite quickly run out of things to do as they are not very capable planes by modern standards. Just guns, dumb bombs and limited A2A.

- Mirage, Hornet, A-10C: complex modern aicraft that are easy to fly and very capable in the right hands, but require some learning. After you learn the basics, they are much easier to employ efficiently, as they have many modern amenities like moving maps, full blown HUD that shows weapons impact point, FBW etc.

- MiG-21, Viggen: complex older aircraft, generally not for beginners.

- C-101, Hawk, Harrier - too unfinished, stuff to avoid, especially if you are a beginner.

- Helicopers are in their own world.

I more or less agree, but I find the MiG-15 and L-39 very satisfying aircraft since they are great to fly.

Modern FBW aircraft on the other hand I find kind of boring.

The MiG-21 and Viggen are great, but also actively trying to kill you.

Hence, I would personally recommend either the MiG-15 or the L-39 as a first module, and of those two, the latter gets my vote as it is more versatile.

Get the plane you are most passionate about . That's the one that will motivate you to master .

I kind of agree with this, on the other hand, you may also be disappointed.

Good looks or interesting service history do not always equal great pilot's aircraft.

Good point, that is worth mentioning that the Harrier is the most 'janky' of the early access experiences I've been a part of. But I owed it to my 10 year-old self that watched True Lies to give it a go.

 

Another good point Harlikwin made is that the startup sequences should almost be in their own bucket. It's either going to be boring/tedious or an integral part of the fun. The harrier in particular for me while one of the 'easier' ones gave me the most headache. The A-10 which is one of the more complex I could do in my sleep, however, I attribute that to failing the startup mission in the excellent Maple Leaf Qualification campaigns 45 times or so.

 

Slight change of subject but are you flying in VR? If so for SURE devote some time to getting VR performance mod unless you have like 1080ti's in SLI or something. If you use the Warthog or Cougar HOTAS I also highly recommend Home Fries's excellent CTS software for centralized and most importantly consistent mapping solutions. It even has on the fly profile switching so you can switch aircraft without a lot of hassle.

Yeah, I learned DCS on the Mig21 a few months back when I heard the F14 was coming and then moved to the harrier, and I'm currently also half-assing the F18 mainly for the carrier landing experience and tanking, and I have like half a dozen other modules that I got on sale that I've barely touched but I do like flying the mig15 and F5 here and there.

As for startups, if you don't follow the book, the harrier is fairly easy once you figure out the throttle stupidity and INS (mig had the same thing for me)... Harrier is like half a dozen switches, battery/gen, fuel (x4), engine system, and GO! But alot of people want to do it by the book.

It'll take some months to settle in, this is the hardest part as most people would quit, all you have to do is to just keep slowly learning the actual flight systems, but not actually learning them as if you were in a classroom, that's more like banging your head, it may take longer but let the brain naturally take in stuff, I learn some basic things 3 years later than I should but it's fine, it's just more relaxed than having things hammered in the first day you installed the game or bought the module.

The biggest thing is understanding and expectation, it's very helpful to think of it as space exploration where you send a probe over to Pluto and it takes several hours for the signal to return, so when you buy a module, don't expect to play it the same day/week/month, it takes a totally opposite approach versus usual gaming, taking time to set up the options and controls and getting to know it is what is pretty much required not only recommended, and skipping the setup will to get faster to fly for enjoyment just won't work, you can get away with it on standard gaming but not here.

You don't even need to follow the tutorial 100% in the first time, it's easier to just listen through it first and wondering around doing some stuff, if you can't just skip ahead. Those are some of the tricks of when time doesn't matter, in real life I guess they probably don't suggest any of this.

Infact, not even flying but just looking through the controls screen and just wondering around the cockpit. The brains have to absorb a ton of these mechanics and it just won't happen all at once.

It's like training, you need to do it when you're in the best mood/health so you remember the most. And if it gets annoying then you have to quit and do something else, come back later. If it gets annoying then the trick may be to do more shorter runs rather than a big one and then nothing for weeks.

Didn't really notice any such difficulty with viggen yet... just that if you're not in control of the rudder you can flip on your back in a second. Mostly it's just a bit different in a very nice Swedish cold war way :D

If you like fighters the Mig-15 is much more fun to fly than L-39 which is slower and seems to have a weaker engine. Mig-21 I'm saving for my later years in DCS due to its reputation :smilewink:

It'll take some months to settle in, this is the hardest part as most people would quit, all you have to do is to just keep slowly learning the actual flight systems, but not actually learning them as if you were in a classroom, that's more like banging your head, it may take longer but let the brain naturally take in stuff, I learn some basic things 3 years later than I should but it's fine, it's just more relaxed than having things hammered in the first day you installed the game or bought the module.

 

The biggest thing is understanding and expectation, it's very helpful to think of it as space exploration where you send a probe over to Pluto and it takes several hours for the signal to return, so when you buy a module, don't expect to play it the same day/week/month, it takes a totally opposite approach versus usual gaming, taking time to set up the options and controls and getting to know it is what is pretty much required not only recommended, and skipping the setup will to get faster to fly for enjoyment just won't work, you can get away with it on standard gaming but not here.

With one false start at DCS when BS2 came out I couldn't agree more. I just tend to take it in very small portions and keep having fun in the meanwhile. Any learning plan is very long-term and only if you can appreciate the slowly accumulating knowledge will you enjoy the learning aspect. Maybe with the exception of a few people who have extreme levels of motivation about learning aircraft systems, they may have a an edge but the game has a very different purpose for them.

Well I went and dove in with the Hornet after just one flight in the default Su-25. I am a retired ATC and private pilot. Also I have flown flight sims since they started. But I was over my head at first in the hornet. Since beginning my DCS journey last week, I have been steadily learning the systems and procedures for the Hornet. I'm basically using it as a training platform for the F-14.

YouTube has been indispensable for learning the systems. I also need to print out the manuals. Personally I prefer reading through a physical manual to the PDF thing. And I remember when computer programs all came with nice manuals.

I really do wish that the developer would do up a proper SU35 with thrust vectoring and a proper cockpit similar to the hornet.

I agree, I am doing this for fun. I fly on XP11 also. So when I get frustrated w/ either, I switch to the other and keep flying. I have 100s of FA18 carrier approaches over there and still don't make every one. I am newer here but I have a few dozen of each of the P51D 'quick action' flights. Shift R gets used a bunch.