Returning anxiety; getting blown out of the sky
I just bought several planes, the Battle for Britain, I'm a huge WW1 aviation fan and have been since Red Baron 2. I stopped playing pretty much all flight sims after Hurricane Florence destroyed my home and my stick and pedals, monitor... my whole setup.
I got a cheap stick and am ready to fire her up again. I was a pretty good Fokker Dr. VIII and BF-109G6 pilot years and years ago but all I remember is having my ass kicked over and over again. I had VR and at the time there was a real problem telling friends from for, but it didn't matter. Even before my kids destroyed my VR beyond repair, I flew and flew and seemed to keep getting zonked out of the sky. Now I'm excited but almost don't want to play because I've been gone so long I'll suck even more. I love playing single player but it is *nothing* like getting a kill from a real human player. Also, sometimes I feel like the AI in game creates bad habits.
Anyway I'm wondering if anyone sucks as bad as me, especially spending 40 minutes getting up to altitude only to be blindsided up against some 67-year-old irl Macedonian air force reserve pilot who spends 16 hours a day shooting down Americans in IL2... but still loves the game enough to keep flying?