[pursuivant]

Agreed. I've mentioned this sort of thing before. Radios in military aircraft were a novelty at the start of the war and none too reliable in some cases. The extent of air traffic control varied according to circumstance. Whereas most fighters in 1939 operated from grass fields with flare gun signals if required, by 1945 in America a B25 slammed into the Empire State Building because he ignored the warning by a traffic controller about the poor weather over New York.

Flares were in common use in WW2 but they were used for communication when necessary, not as a matter of course. Under normal operation a pilot would take off and land as desired keeping a careful lookout.

I've alway found it strange that a game like IL2, where so much care has been taken with flight, damage and gunnery models, treats communications as an afterthought. Sadly, I'm not sure what can be done in this regard.

My landing/communications peeves are that aircraft always land one at a time, regardless of type, they land in flight order, regardless of damage status (crippled aircraft should get priority - at least when landing on airfields), and enemy aircraft seem incapable of taking evasive or aggressive action once they're committed to the landing pattern. It would be nice if damaged planes, or planes with wounded crew, could fire a flare and get priority landing status - as was done historically (at least by the USAAF). It would also be nice if enemy planes reacted appropriately when "bounced" while orbiting the airfield while holding for landing.