If you see nothing thr9ough the gunsight reticule, try Crtl D, some have a lens cover on and ctrl-D removes it.

Other planes have the gunsight off centre, I think its ctrl-f1 to centre the sight.

shift-F1 to center the gunsight

Not sure what game version you have, but one of the better intro campaigns for new players wanting to so some mud moving is the German 109 JABO built in DGEN dynamic campaign. When starting the campaign set as many early plane choices to Emil as you can. Remember to click back on the first date/plane before proceeding.

The JABO campaign in an Emil is an excellent learning tool because the Emil is a beautiful plane to fly down low at slow speed and you get ridiculous amounts of MG ammo (recently restarted this one and got 3 I16's and 23 vehicles in my second mission ... 2 medals in 2 missions woot) and generally your AI can take care of the main target and any fighters roaming about letting you roam the map yourself looking for targets of opportunity to practice on.

Note that flying ground attack in IL2 benefits immensely from TrackIR .

It's not strictly true that many Japanese pilots chose to fly without parachutes. More often than not they were just not given them. I don't know why...perhaps lack of parachutes?

It may be rare that extra fuel is needed for any map in the game. Usually the default fueltank(s) will be sufficient if the aircraft is flown properly in CEM.
To get best fuel economy lean the mixture at any height above 500m after you trim the aircraft for cruise. This is possible at low to very low altitudes without damaging the engine (at least this is the case in real life) Further mixture control may be needed the higher you go. To see this better fly the pc.11 if you've got it. It needs mixture edjustment just to keep the engine going sometimes; or fly the Yak 9's at a high speed climb.
Supercharger control is also necessary to control fuel economy at certain altitudes.

Trim supports best fuel economy because the aircraft does not lose momentum if it does not turn ot pitch up as it generally would under only stick pilot control (and therefore waste fuel). Formation flying is also a great way to run out of fuel.

If variable pitch propellor is fitted to the aircraft a typical egress may be this: prop pitch fully fine (100%) => takeoff => climb to cruise altitude => reduce mixture (maybe 70-80% or less) => reduce prop pitch (maybe 60-70% or even less) => reduce throttle to suit (you usually neecd to reduce throttle by around 50% to maintain cruise at RPM) = fuel economy

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KrashanTopolova,

ILikePortillos, you're already doing better than most of us when we started. Like most of us, I had to search for the answers to the standard new guy questions like the gunsight on German aircraft, and lack of parachutes on early Japanese aircraft (for early war aircraft, this was historical, in a very Colin Chapman-esque obsession with reducing weight.)

A utility that will help you familiarize yourself with the aircraft is Harball's Aircraft Viewer. This lists range, but keep in mind what others have said, how you set the prop, mixture and supercharger, how high and fast you fly, and what weapons you carry, will affect that number greatly, as in real life.

A couple of other tips. When you've got your airplane on autopilot, it won't overheat, so you can keep the radiator closed, and avoid the increased drag for long flights. Trying to keep up with the AI (who doesn't overheat) while hand-flying will always leave you a little behind, or overheating, or both.

In the difficulty panel, I'd suggest disabling "No Instant Success", which it sounds like you've already done. In true double-negative fashion, this means "instant success", i.e. you don't have to get all the way back to base to move to the next mission. As long as you're not mortally damaged over enemy lines when you quit the mission, you should be able to progress to the next one.

You might want to consider starting a career at higher rank, too. It may not be as much fun as progressing though the ranks, but it gives you control over the fuel and weapons with which your flight starts the mission.

I'd also suggest disabling clouds offline. While they add to the atmosphere (literally and figuratively), you're the only one affected by them. The Ai will detect you, and shoot you, right through them. I'd disable turbulence in the difficulty panel also, for the same reason.

Good luck, and welcome. It's a lot of information to take in, but the plus side is that a sim as in-depth as this one is a sim that you'll definitely be flying for some time to come.