Get teamSpeak.....NOW!

Good equipment helps you in tremendous ways. Good HOTAS, TrackIR, that kind of stuff. Lets talk TeamSpeak.
TeamSpeak (get it here) is a very useful tool once yout get it set up and running. Easy to download and install, your hardest part is the connection, and once you have that figured your in everytime. After installing, your gonna get a choice when trying to log on of "connect" and "quick connect". I choose quick connect and this is the address you put in the server address box : 78.129.193.3:9192. Put your callsign in the nickname box, and the password is "magic". You will enter the AAA server and have a choice of channels to join. Pick a side of Red or Blue, or hang out in the lobby, what ever you want to start out on. Alot of the admins hang out and fly while in the lobby, so go there if you want to get a hang of how things work. Don't ask questions about mod help, because just like the radio buffer in the arena, mod questions are not welcome there, they are intended for the forums.
IL-2 is international. Even tho English is the official language of aviation (look it up), you are gonna get languages and accents up the wazoo. I logged on and the admins were all there and I thought I was on the Monty Python show. This has its good side, because they know the only voice without an english accent is Me. Presto! Easy to identify.
Some people fly in the arena while logged into the lobby. This provides a strange situation some times, because they may be red and you may be blue. They start blabbing about their missions, where they are gonna fly, what alt. They might as well come and paint their own kill markers on your plane for you. Flip side is they can hear you too.
Example: The =RT= guys were flying Tempests while on the lobby channel of TeamSpeak. I hit a Tempest and knocked out his controls. I heard him say that, and that he thought it was Hedu (am I the only all-bright red 190 in the arena?). I came around to finish him off, and he said "cmon hedu, gimme a break", so I did. I peeled off and let him go. Technically I got him, and he was gonna have a tough time coasting back to base. But he was on the same channel, and raised me on the radio. So, cool, doesn't hurt to let him go, I did my job.
It can happen to you.
Teamspeak also makes flying with wingmen and flying formation alot easier. I have seem escort with heavy bombers totally react wrongly to what the attackers AND his bombers are doing, solely to the reason of no communication. The IL-2 radio buffer is a peice of crap and totally inadequate for the job it is supposed to do.
One things I hope to see more of with the increasing use of Teamspeak is the calling of 6. In Warbirds, we could click our mouse pointer on a friendly and the radio would call 6 for them with radio and sound. You can't do that with IL-2, but Teamspeak can help that. You just have to have it to make it work.