The tutorials are unbelievable - the best I've personally seen out of the games I've ever played, imo. Just find the Learning Center and everything is at your fingertips
You should also go to flight school and acquire at least a private pilot's license. Each lesson in the flight school consists of two parts: reading, and in-plane flight training. You'll need to read an often large unit of text, then you'll actually fly the plane and put that which you've learned into practice.
Another thing to keep in mind: If at any time you can't find the key(s) you're looking for, you can press F10 to bring up the kneeboard and view the key commands. You'll still be flying when you do this, so pause the game if you want to avoid a bad situation. The keys you'll probably use the most often:
G - Landing Gear up/ down
F5 - Flaps up full
F6 - Flaps up incremental
F7 - Flaps down incremental
F8 - Flaps down full
W - Change cockpit views (full cockpit, vital instruments over nose cam, no instruments over nose cam)
S - Change interior view (cockpit view, internal view (hat will move view around inside plane), tower view, external plane view)
SHIFT + P - Reverse Push (when you're about to taxi and you need to back up, this is the only way to do it that I know of)
F11 - Left differential brake (during taxi, used in taildragger planes like the Douglas DC-3 or the Piper Cub)
F12 - Right differential brake
About the stick: Do you mean dual analog like a console's controller? I'm not sure if that will work very well, but you could try it. I for one would have a hard time with it, I think. imo you'd be better off using a proper flight stick, preferably one with a throttle quadrant, trigger (for land brakes), hat switch (for looking around), and a few other buttons (I have five buttons and a trigger, with the trigger as my land brake, button #2 set to parking brake, 3/4 set to pitch trim, and 5/6 set to differential brakes). If the buttons on your gamepad are multi-stage like a PS2's controller then you might be alright, but otherwise your landings might be somewhat difficult.
In terms of planes, I suggest you start out small and learn in a Cessna Skylane, Cessna Skyhawk, Beechcraft King Air Type 350 (that's my plane), Beechcraft Baron 58, Bravo Mooney, or if you want to fly a jet, the Bombardier Leerjet. I definitely wouldn't jump into the biggest Boeing I could find, hehe. The selection of planes is staggering, including the Wright Brothers Flyer, the "Spirit of St. Louis" (which Charles Lindburgh used to cross the Atlantic), the Curtiss Jenny, the Ford Tri-Motor, the DC-3, Amelia Erheart's plane (spelling is way off, I know), and dozens more
There's something for everyone, and if the plane you're looking for isn't in the game, it's only a mod away
But be careful modding airports and planes and delete any that don't work or they can mess up your game!
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