The Spitfire is not exactly a beginner’s airplane. If you’ve never flown a sim before, I highly recommend the flight lessons. Once you get those done, then you’ll need some tail-dragger experience. The Savage Cub is a good one for starting off slow, then move up to the XCub. With either one, be prepared for the plane to try to veer left during takeoff at around 40 knots. You’ll want to counter it with right rudder.
Trust me when I say that starting small and working your way up is greatly satisfying. If you just bought the sim and decided to jump into the Pitts or Extra for your very first flight, you’d probably get frustrated.
Looking sharp! As mentioned above, the spit is quite a difficult one to handle. especially during take off and landing. I bought this one myself as well and had a lot of joy with it. But take off is still quite a challenge somethimes.
Start little and slow would be my advice, just to get to know the basic flightskills. But as my docter always says: do as I say, not as I do. Because when i started flightsimming years ago, I checked for the plane I loved (747) and wanted to fly it. It gave me a lot of frustration (autopilot, navigation, flightcomputer etc etc), but for me it was part of my trip and i took it as a challenge.
Its all about having fun, but If you wont succeed the first time, dont let it ruin your day but just take an other plane to start with.
The spit is a beauty, and behaves gracefully when flying correct, and just like any other plane: treat it like a lady. Be gentle, small steps at a time and you will enjoy it a very long time!
I use the logitech extreme 3d pro for now, and i works just great (had the same one before this one until it broke after 10 years). I also had a complete set with yoke, pedals and trustlevers in the past, but I sold it.
And to be honest, it lacks a bit of imersion and reality to it, but I havent missed it so for. For me a joystick with z axis (rudder) works great, and my wife is happy with it to, because it doesnt take much space.
The unbridled joy of throwing the spitfire around in the skies will definitely help with that.
As others have said, take off and landing can be a bit twitchy if it’s your first adventures into flight simming, however once in the air it’s a wonderful plane and learning to get it off the ground and get back down are part of the journey.
I’m sure you will nail it. (One day)
Another really good taildragger to learn the basics is the new C140 from Aeroplane Heaven. She’s a beauty, and the handling is more docile than most taildraggers. Still, you’ve gotta be smooth and steady during takeoff and landing.