Questions of Flight

[Kelindel]

I'm new to the Planetside world and am very very anxiously awaiting my chance to get into Beta and then the actual release of the game. I am strongly considering focusing on being a pilot in the game, but am unsure. Does anyone have any comments on how the vehicles handle and what games/simulators I might try in order to practice until I can actually get into the game. (for reference I plan on playing TR and was thinking of flying a liberator with some friends).

As an addendum, does anyone know if the game will be compatible with flight sticks and/or how effective they might be in terms of game integration and usefulness?