They aren't as good as COD4/CODWAW, that's for sure. But there is very little auto aim compared to those games, so who knows.
Then again, after COD4, they're the best console shooter controls of any shooter I've played.
This is Battlefield tradition. In Battlefield 2 especially there would be pilots who had over 100 kills and 0 deaths.
It's actually quite easy to stay flying around the entire match, if you get a plane early on. Just patrol around the enemy carrier and airfields to make sure that if an enemy aircraft takes off, you shoot him down quickly.
Problem is actually hitting anyone with the bombs for me. I've dropped bombs dozens and dozens of times and only killed a guy once with them. (he was in an AA gun, so he wasn't moving, easy to hit)
If you have trouble bombing in this one, like I do, getting kills with the aircraft is tough. I shoot down all of the enemy aircraft in the game and only end up with 10 or so kills because people stop trying to use the aircraft after a while.