ArtemisRodent

Just to add what others have said, the framerate drop seems to be related to what the aircraft is pointed at. I took off from Vazani in the SE direction in a custom mission and it was smooth as silk coated in butter. I kept a rough SE heading for a while for a while to get a feel, but when I turned back in to face towards the airfield (not in visual range by this point) the FPS plummeted to completely unplayable rates. I'm talking slideshow rates. My alt was around 3400 FT. When that framerate drop hit, going to third person removed the problem as others have said, but when I went back to cockpit view it turned into a slideshow again. When I then turned the aircraft SE again, the framerate went back up and it was perfectly smooth again. I had the flood lights off, in case that matters.

There is always a gun run, bonus points for excessive screaming. Tends to be a one-way trip though, though so maybe tape down the trigger and flip the master arm right before you eject. Ok, maybe not.

Another thing to add about the Open Conflict server is the safe zones are areas where you can practice your air-to-ground flights on targets that will shoot back to a degree (usually AAA) without worrying about getting shot down by other air threats. Lets you focus on doing clean runs and learning how your weapons behave. Then, when you're feeling squirrelly, you can hit targets in the conflict zone where AI and player aircraft along with SAMs, etc., will be hunting you. Like Shinhwa said, learn how to use the IFF system your aircraft has so you don't shoot down friendlies. Also take off from runways, not taxiways but that should be the case on any server.

I'll add that you do NOT have to have waypoints set in the mission editor to use the weapons. It's a little more initial work on the ramp or on the way to the target, but you can enter all the data the weapons need after you are in the cockpit. In my opinion that's more fun anyway and gives you something to do while heading to a longer range target. It flies beautifully and the autopilot is very intuitive when you need to go heads-down and mash buttons. A youtuber named xxJohnxx has good tutorials for figuring out QFE altimeter settings in-flight without preset waypoint data for when you get that far. Landing with autothrottle takes a bit of practice if you are used to landing other aircraft, but it's not too hard to learn either. The ejection seat is there so you can survive lessons. ;-) (Edit): Lesson 1: Don't forget to arm the ejection seat...