I tried Software mode on a side note I got sick of the D3D artifacts and the Speed Problems with 3DFX I figured its a great solution for all thoes just wanting to use the F4 Helmet mode and being able to really easily make out your screens it was a problem with 3dfx the screens looked all diced up an dashed. No artifacts and game runs at normal speed all patches installed smooth running oh an POSITIVE G I noticed your site is fixed now but it says in the networking section under

5. A/C related
"Any attempt to get into a Kiowa has resulted in a game lockup or MS error popup before entering the cockpit phase. If someone has solved this problem, please share how it was done."

I tested this myself when I was in North Dakota this last week on 2 newish dells works fine both in same Kiowa chopper an one was running D3D an the other 3DFX different graphics cards an about as sketchy as you can get in 2 different setups but it workd fine patched an all. I used daemontools on both machines. Confirm yours? Have you tested this yet?