to me the take off and landings are unrealistically easy, I can take off the P51 without a hint of rudder, just gas it and go. I've flown several different P51's, and none of them would take off with NO rudder input, for that matter, I don't know if any tail dragger I've ever owned would take off with no rudder input. Maybe with a good strong wind straight down the runway? And the landings are pretty realistic, just you can smack them in pretty hard (no Flare) and not do any damage...landings that would break stuff in real life. The Big Stick fly's pretty close to how I remember mine flying, but pull it back to about 3/4 throttle, as albsurfer pointed out, the engines seem very powerful. I also had one of the Slingers, mine was stock, again it fly's pretty realistic if you pull it back to about half throttle. Maybe if you put a hot brushless on it it would fly like the sim. Those are the only two planes on the sim I've ever owned and flown. It will however get you used to the controls of an airplane.

Now, my biggest problem is perspective. I don't know how else to describe it, but looking at the plane flying on the screen, and never having to move your head or eyes...it all adds up to a different experience...that part you can't learn without actually doing it...but the sticks are the same. The first time you look away from your plane and can't find it in the sky, or fly it into the sun and lose sight of it you will get an instant SICK feeling (and panic), that doesn't happen on the sim.