aircraft wont turn

Thess arent fighters. You can pull up into the turn and use ruders to increase yiur rate

Play how you wanna play and dont let anyone tell you otherwise

Its good to see someone that actually takes down aircraft, but then I only only play S&D so I probably wont see much anit aircraft anywuay

My planes wont take off at their normal takeoff speeds, and generally have trouble climbing, but only when I select the location and aircraft. The challenge works just fine, so I know it's not my joystick or anything.

I think it's the only thing missing in BF3 as DICE confirmed awhile ago there wont be any other way to train your skills in aircrafts outside of multi-player, I used OS on BC2 to better my skills in choppers.

Make sure you are actually looking at the correct Airfield. The smaller Airfield is the Missions (Drug/ Weapons Running) is not the hanger for Storing Aircraft. It's actually the larger Airfield across the lake with the Heli Pad
and Hanger that you will want to Store Aircraft.

A side note though, stolen Aircraft seem to still have a small Glitch in that if a Purchased Aircraft is at the Hanger you will no longer have access to the stolen Aircraft without Loading a prior Save File. In short, don't buy any Aircraft yet unless you want
to lose that hard "earned" em stolen fighter jet.