Most online FPS take a while to get good at. There's stages in FPS. I've narrowed the Battlefield 1942 stages down pretty specifically:
Stage 1: can kill a few people online, but crash the planes ASAP.
Stage 2: can kill more people than the amount of times you die. Can get from point A to point B in a plane, but can't dogfight.
Stage 3: known as one of the people on the team that gives it a good chance of winning. Can dive bomb with the planes and dogfight. Point ratio is 5-1 at least (gets 5 points before dying).
Stage 4: If this person is on a team, they're probably gonna win. Can use every weapon in the game to its full extent. Damn good in all aircraft. Can land the planes, dive bomb, dogfight, and ram the airplanes into other people or aircraft without dying. Point ratio is 10-1 (gets 10 points before dying).
Ya just gotta go through stages. Every stage is fun, even though I practiced a LOT in single-player before I played online (great idea).
DICE (the developers) designed the game for hardcore FPS players. Non-hardcore FPS players might find the vehicle learning curve way too steep. I've got friends that are damn good at FPS but can't fly a fucking Desert Combat Apache for their life.
Maybe it's not your type of game! When I was having the learning-fest of the airplanes in BF, I played everyday because I wanted to be good at the planes. By the end of a few weeks, I was kicking ass in the planes. Ya just gotta understand the physics engine perfectly. It does take a lot of time, but if ya ask me, it's worth it. I thought it was fun as hell to learn to fly the planes in Battlefield 1942. If ya think the planes are hard, wait until you try the helicopters in Desert Combat.
I've never played any FPS that's came close to the fun I've had with Battlefield 1942, the Desert Combat mod, and Battlefield Vietnam.
-Lasereth