I'm not much for vehicles in this game beyond getting on the horse and swording people or the hilarity of driving the motorcycle around. Occasionally I'll get in a tank when they're available and I've had some decent success there. But the one thing I can't seem to ever get right is the aerial vehicles. I've tried to summon my inner Scanlon and take to the skies but I consistently struggle with the controls. Anyone have any advice or tips on how to be a more effective pilot?

Additionally I did buy a HOTAS a while ago to mostly play Elite on and I'm not sure if you can use it with Battlefield, but I've been meaning to see if it would work. I'm wondering if that would make things easier.

Might be a weird question to ask but did you try campaign? I only played the introduction and Through Mud and Blood but so far it feels like a glorified tutorial emphasizing various aspects of the game. One of the war stories (Friends in High Places) I believe focuses on air combat so you can start there. At the least you can practice and not be a hindrance to your team who might have someone who is a crack shot on plane but can't get in one.

As for controller preference, there are folks who stick with kb/m while others go controller. A flight stick shouldn't be too bad either.

The single player dog fighting missions are set to a strange control scheme that doesn't allow the full control of the aircraft that you get in multi, so play that for the story but it's no tutorial on flight dynamics.

As far as I'm aware, neither TrackIR or HoTAS are supported in BF1 (unless there was an update), so your best bet is a controller for now.

@the_last_starfighter said:

But for someone struggling with the controls to begin with, wouldn't it be easier to just get some form of familiarity before going off with the real deal? Sure the real learning comes from the multiplayer but at this point, better to start off with training wheels than just have him crash in the first 10 seconds or get shot easily by experienced folk.

I would have also suggested renting a server for a couple of days to really get a feel with no interference at all but it ain't out yet.

Use WASD and the arrow keys. Shoot with the space-bar. Don't bother with the mouse.

I play on PS4.

Fighter and Attack Planes are fine

I crash my bomber every time.

@isomeri:

This is what I do also but I am very awful at planes.

Change pitch up to space.

@isomeri: Best advice, I've used this method since 1942 and its Desert Combat mod.

I used to crash all the time everywhere until I started switching to third-person the second that plane gets up and running. Press C to do that. It's a lot easier.

@vierastalo: I play on PS4 and need to go back and forth between first and third when using the attack plane and it's a pain. How do you guys line up the bombs in third person?? The first person view has neat little crosshairs but it's impossible to control using that scope.

@plop1920 said:

I don't use the scope, on PC you can press a button to have the minimap be bigger. Since I don't drop bombs wherever I usually have spotted targets that show up on that map. Just wait for your icon to cross over them and boom.