Not very. They're "airplanes", and we try to get them to do right by real life, but since this is a sub sim, the devs apparently didn't put a whole lot into the airplanes. They are a resource hog anyway. Some mods do better than others in controlling the planes, but you'll find inappropriate planes in very strange places, with inappropriate bomb loads, and to top it off, they do not dogfight with each other, and at times, it can be difficult to get them to engage enemy vessels at even a semblence of reality... If you're going to play stock, you can try
Webster's Better Air Patrols, or his
Game Fixes Only mods. Most of the other major mods do tweak the airplanes in an attempt to get better response out of them. Over in the
FotRSU thread, we were just talking about that very thing...
We've had issues with planes trying to do a "touch-and-go" on Ford Island, and crashing...