~S!~ Gents,
First of all thank you for the feedback Grangest and Klaiber. Turns out that the problem was maximum RAM allocation which I had at 1024MB. Spies told me to drop it to 512MB and try again. And just like that, I was in the middle of the Pacific. Having not flown for at least 6 months and trying it out on a new machine, I quickly discovered that I had forgotten to map a bunch of important commands such as increase decrease fuel mixture, lower hook, etc. After several frustrating failed attemts to take off I found out that mapping the two wheel brakes to the pedals was a bad idea as it kept reading an input when there was none and kept slowing me down right at the edge of the carrier. Consequently I landed in the water more times I care to remember. Finally, fate spared me and gave me an air start. Turned out that DF was the only part I was successful at - shot down a Hellcat, two P-39's, and two torpedo bombers (the name eludes me - Dauntless?). Thanks to Moxi, who came to the rescue while I was fooling around with a fighter and shot off a P-39 off my tail at one point. Needless to say, I did not even attempt a carrier landing.
All in all, it was a lot of fun and I believe that I am now fully operational.
See you soon!
~S!~
Lang