Glad to hear you've managed to get online a bit and have your PC behaving itself.
This is is a tough sim to learn, but well worth the effort of practice. A lot of guys in the squadron have been flying this and other flight sims for years, and Mikester is one of our best (possibly THE best but don't tell him as we don't want him to get too bigger an ego

), so if you go up against him in a 1v1 thats going to be a tough one!
From a practice point of view I would advise you to pick one aircraft and learn how to fly that first rather than trying out all the planes in the sim, as they do have different characteristics. Practice take off and landing in that plane until you can do that OK (remember, if you do ever get to the point where you survive combat, you want to be able to survive the landing as well

). The right aircraft to start with is an emotive subject, and you might have some personal favourite, but these are some of the things to consider:
1. Some of the planes have narrow undercarriages eg Bf109 and Spitfire, which make them tricky to land and takeoff in. Others, like the Hurricane and FW190, have wider set wheels which makes their take off and landing characteristics a bit more forgiving.
2. What is your personal style for combat, do you like to bank and turn, or hit and run. Bank and turn is more exciting, but hit and run will see you survive more of the time! Different aircraft have different strengths but pick one that suits you.
3. Do you want to learn to be a ground pounder rather than a fighter pilot?
A good all rounder might be the La5, or it's big brother the La7 - if you find that suits you and you get to grips and start to understand how to fly it then practice in that, if not switch to something else.
The Sunday coop sessions which a lot of us fly in are currently using the Spitfire, the FW190 or the Me210 (which is from the modded version) so you could try them.