As far as I can tell, there is something "odd" going on with this controls bacause:
1-Fingerlifts are NOT needed once in the air (no weight on the wheels) as I can lit the burners and see the throttles go to the absolute max just by moving my wharthog throttles accordingly to the max. I use the "bump" afterburners mod in my TM WH.
2-The fingerlifts are mandatory ONLY when taking off from the carrier, no matter if being launched from the catapult or just a "touch and go", the burners wont lit if you dont use the fingerlifts.
I think this is kind of and odd/buggy behaviour unless there is something in hte system making the plane to know its in a carrier which I highly doubt...