Krowley said:
well you must be a better gamer than me.... i did that middle mission so many times i lost count before i finally beat it. The way the plane controlled was unforgivable...
What did you find so hard about it? I admit, it did feel a little floaty at first. Maybe it's all the practice flying floaty planes in BF1942, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The biggest thing to remember is that moving the stick to the left and right doesn't turn the plane like it would a car, but rolls it instead. So to do a turn, you need to roll the plane to the side a little bit, then pull back on the stick, or use the rudder control (L2/R2) for a more shallow turn.
the fuel limit was way too harsh, and the random way the vehicles spread out made it impossible to have a reliable game plan. i did the mission perfect several times and still ended up running out of fuel just a few feet from my landing point. i came to the conclusion that it was pure luck. the final vehicle you attacked had to be close enough to the building to allow you to get back on your remaining fuel and that was randomly determined depending on the path it took. i honestly think that mission is the main reason i stopped playing the game. after i finished it, i never enjoyed the game in the same way. i was completley burnt out, i probably should have just left it alone.
I do agree with you about the fuel limit being a bit low. Before I had a good order down, I would knock out the targets as soon as I got to them, yet still would run out a few blocks before the roof (it was always right when the baseball fields would come into view).
However, I'm pretty sure that the vehicle spread isn't random. The starting points are all definitely the same, and the couriers all tend to hang out near the area they start in. I found that taking out the first three targets correctly is essential to completing the mission:
First, you take out the van that's right in front of the starting point. Since the driver will always get out to shoot at you once he knows you're there, it's best to start firing from a distance to get him out of his car early, then just fly straight towards him with guns blazing. This will kill him pretty quickly.
Then, fly straight to the west towards the other van that's near your starting point (NOT towards the bike which is actually closer to your current position). This makes your current flight path from the starting point almost a straight line. Once you get to the second van, don't shoot at it until you're really close to it. None of the couriers will start shooting back or running until you fire on them, so when you're attacking ones that don't leave their vehicles, it's best not to shoot until you're right on top of them, as the machine gun bullets spread out quite a bit. If you did it right, you'll have taken out the first two targets in about ten seconds.
Next, turn around and head straight to the east. By this time, the guy on the bike will have turned west, and be most likely headed straight at you. Like the first target, he'll walk around and try and shoot you once you hit him, so start shooting from a distance and he'll be down quickly.
Once you get that down, you can have the first three targets destroyed REALLY quickly, leaving plenty of time to fly all the way up north for the last two (on my last two attempts, I hit half fuel just as I was killing target #4). The problem is that the last two targets are tougher to kill, especially the two guys on the motorcycle. They have really good accuracy, and start to run as soon as you hit them. I ended up just landing the plane behind them and opening fire at point blank range and hitting the gas so I could keep up. As soon as they burst into flames, get out of there to reduce the amount of damage they do to you (they'll keep shooting until they explode).
Anyways, I just loved the experience of driving around with "homies" killing all that oppose. Now, about 30 or 40 hours later, it sucks. Right after I was dropped off at Angel Pine it went downhill. What happened? The missions seemed to get lame, it wasn't nearly as cool. I'm now about 5 missions away from beating the main story, and I don't have any potential to beat it. 
I mean, stealing the Hydra and jet pack and stuff was cool, but WTF?
BUY DROPSHIP.