Yeah. Its a study sim. No way around it, you're going to need to read some manuals and watch some youtube videos. It will be time consuming, and it's definitely a delayed gratification.
But when it all comes together, there's this moment when it clicks, you start to really understand the core of the planes or helos. And it starts becoming a lot easier. You can actually get the plane up and down reliably. No more overshooting the runway or just smacking into the ground. You know how the tedious nav system works, the guns, rockets, bombs, etc. You learn the nine-lines, and ATC jargon, the GCI callouts, and whatever the f*** taxi'ing via Mike Bravo means.
Faster than you realize, somewhere over Syria, or Guam, Georgia, wherever; you pickle your laser guided GBU-12. You're sitting there patiently watching your TGP while in autopilot orbit and you wait as the bomb falls from 25,000 feet up. Randomly, you remember a month ago that you couldn't even start the plane. You cant help but grin. Then your 500 lb bomb makes contact with the beater toyota and lights up your FLIR camera like the fourth of july.
That's it, that's the moment. The game has you. It only gets better.