Alpha is much much more realistic in the landing department, - at take off, you really need to keep the throttle setting low to be realistic.
Later on, experiment with wind settings but never set "gusts" higher than #1 otherwise they are like a tornado! - all this is how it is on my computer of course, - other computers may be different.
No more than a couple of worthwhile planes on it though, - I guess you can download others (if you can find a good one), but for a "learning to fly tool" and not for a "game", I think it's fine as it is.