Good details @bunyap2w1 - I had wrongly assumed it was simpler, so it’s good to see that it is doing good things like that.
Just to confirm, the AI uses a simpler flight model? I got the impression that sometimes the AI is helped by being able to do some things I can’t e.g. weight/power ratios in climbs, trimmed etc, but that might not be correct either.
Yep, exactly right.
I’m actually doing a campaign that is very air to air intensive right now so it is the first time I have really dug into it. There are some problems but it usually when I allow myself to get far too slow. The AI has to get slow as well and is not able to use its entire bag of tricks. That isn’t the AI being stupid, it is just me. 
I think there are also some fail-safes built in where the AI has to either cheat a little or lose control and crash. I’m not trying to defend anything, I have no dog in this hunt, but I’m good with that personally.
Last year I was flying exclusively F-5 on the BuddySpike “‘80s” server. The guy working “Magic” directed me to a -21 south of Nellis on the deck. Magic was so good that I ended up in a canopy to canopy turning fight with the MiG even though I NEVER SAW HIM. Eventually another plane got sick of my BS and took the shot. After that I switched to CBU drops and helicopters. Flying VR ACM is pointless in DCS. IL2 is better but only by a smidge. Honestly, unless we get taken over by North Korea and the Dear Leader forces us to all use identical viewing systems, there is nothing the developer can do about distant viewing short of ugly dots. I think we will just have to suck it up and eat this one.
I’ve discovered that I became much better at spotting by flying on the F5/Mig21 servers, after a month or so I joined blue flag and it felt so easy spotting other aircraft and helicopters!
Good times in pro Counterstrike back in the day if you wanted to win. You’d get people using huge 27 inch cathode ray (refresh rate gaming) tube monitors with a resolution of 320x256. Targets appeared as enormous blocks. ‘Downrezzing’, crazy DPI mouse speeds, 2 yard mouse mats. TIR flick speeds. Nature finds a way, people like to win online…
Fascinating! Thanks for the insight. Out of curiosity, do you know if once the AI has detected a unit, is it possible for them to lose track of it?
The other variable here is also the display size oc
Seriously, problem with the low res, at least for me, are the flickering edges of the objects like trees, shadows, roads and hilsides in distance, etc. This again makes the visibility problematic.
Wasnt able to find combination of setings to prevent it.