Glad to hear i'm not the only one who is an average shot in Il2 struggling to hit anything effectively in this sim
I found i had to tweak my joystick settings to make them less sensitive, turn off headshake, and re-check that i had changed the convergence for the plane i was flying. Using the 'loosen straps' command helps a lot as well- i now have it set to one of my hat switches so i can quickly turn it off. With it still engaged you can't turn to look behind you.
I'm also using TrackIR- i've turned down the X (move left/right) and y (move up/down) axes so they now have a large dead zone but with accellerated edges so i can still see outside the cockpit while taxiing. It seems to have helped with maintaining a steady aim.