On the one hand, you’ve got the excellent checklists which let you follow along and cold-start the engine from scratch. Beyond the initial tutorial, the game really lacks feedback or instruction, and any learning will have to be done by either experimentation or external resources. You've got the basics down, but now you want to peel back the assists and start doing things manually - learning the various buttons, instrument panels, ILS, etc - and that's where things come up a bit short. The game does such a great job of being accessible and getting you flying, that it actually taps into the very elusive desire to learn more, but it doesn't provide all the tools. The gamepad sensitivity is quite touchy on default setting, but it can be adjusted.
The key bind list spans pages worth of combinations, which are made easier to find thanks to the built-in search function.
And considering how many functions each flight deck has, your keyboard and mouse still remains very crucial. You'll want to have an analog input, such as a controller or joystick, in order to control your movements. You can play the game with just a mouse and keyboard, but it's extremely disadvantageous. The majority of these inputs are functional, and everything seems to work according to the real world - but you'd have to ask a real pilot to confirm that. In the flight deck, you can look around and use the mouse to interact with the hundreds of knobs and buttons in front of you. The act of flying itself is relaxing and immersive, thanks to a variety of in-cockpit and external camera angles.
If you've played arcade flying games before, it won't be a huge adjustment to play this sim with all assists enabled. On easiest settings, it's no sweat to take off, fly, and land, as the game will gently guide you around, and there's no punishment for errors.
Despite being a simulation, the game has a variety of options to tweak the gameplay experience - from assisted landings and automatic comms with the Air Traffic Control, to fully manual taxiing and fuel mixing. You'll learn the necessities of navigation, the key rudders and flaps, and a few terms.
Before jumping into all that the game has to offer, there is a series of brief tutorial missions that will get you acquainted with the basics.