Is it a common experience for COD to be completely unflyable out of the box? I am a long time sim player and pilot and even attempting to manually set up my flight stick (and recalibrating) this game is extremely high on the frustration level. Any tips for getting the game setup properly? I can't believe that there are no default settings that will work. I am currently having a blast playing Rise of Flight, so if COD is still lacking a decent control interface, I guess I can just hold off.

Thanks for any tips/input you may have.

System specs and what kind of flight controls?

There are a few essential controls that don't have default keys assigned for sure, calibrating your stick shouldn't be necessary but your axes may not be recognised by default either.
Try this, go into control settings select 'aircraft' then 'axes', click on the relevant axes you want to set and give your stick a wiggle in the appropriate direction. Rinse and repeat until all your axes are set, and don't what ever you do exit the controls menu without clicking 'Apply' in the bottom right. If you don't you'll have to go back and start again!
Try this and post back if you need more help, also post your specs as well.

Thanks for the replies - my system is an intel core i7-2600k win7 machine with 16 gb ram and an nvidia GeForce GTX 560. I also am running a Creative SB X-FI card.

I tried get everything going again and this time I also disconnected my logitech gamepad just for good measure. I am able to fly well in the training missions. However, now I have major graphic issues! Any ideas on what driver level I should be on for the GeForce GTX 560?

Thanks

301.24 or higher. This way you can enable FSXX in the nvidea control panel; It will provide at least some anti-aliasing. In game AA only works (badly) at 2X, even if you set it higher.

Wasn't really sure if you had graphicsperformance or hotas control issues
Anyhow, what gave me most positive effect was to set "Land Shading" to LOW and most definately check the "Disable Desktop Composition" for the launcher.exe


my settings running a GTX580
http://odenhouse.servegame.com/il2codsetup2.png
(not using Anti-Alias nowadays though)

I don't know if it helps you, but my videos are all made with Il-2 CoD strictly "out of the box". Just did one install when the sim came out and haven't touched it. So, it should be possible for you to get it to work well.

My specs:
Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
SSD

Those are good settings, and here's what I usually use (in this thread)

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3536133/COD_in_game_hardware_tweaks.html