I'm not super into airplanes and airplane games but I loved Ace Combat 4-6 and Project Wingman
I think I liked Project Wingman more than 6 actually. Learning to not use the simplified flight model was good fun. Like taking the training wheels off

I don't particularly like airplane games (I like space games though, played Elite with a HOTAS for years) and really only ever play Ace Combat so I will second Project Wingman. I had a ton of fun