>>375940437
VTOL VR isn't ace combat. You're thinking of Wingman.
>hard/realistic
It's trying to be realistic without being too deep into the autism simulator territory.
>time to pick up
The in game tutorials are pretty good. Fair few hours to get through them all as they're set up in a campaign. After you've figured out how everything works it's a couple of hours to master.
>is it forgiving
No.