[Keenefx]

My IL-2 routinely crashes the first time I load it on Win7, probably because I am forcing full screen on a widescreen laptop, but I can just start it up again and it works. I'm sure you've heard about running as Admin, or running in compatibility mode, but you may also try eliminating all of the mini-mods, such as smoke, fire, etc. and try running the game bare bones, then adding one or two at a time until the freeze happens.

I had the same issue and it turned out to be a couple of mini-mods that may have had conflicts with others.