thinks its based on a proper WW2 carrier manual but i spose all the crews would have tweaked it to what suited them :), and i'd agree with you on the 3rd turn, i tend to go a little furthur down and make it one shallow turn. Had a look at your site and thought that 1000-2000ft is a bit high/far, we aint flying jets after all ;D
RealityX is basicly a little progy type thingi that adds "out of the box" damage to your plane, say you treat your engine harshly, after to much damage it'll die on you, it also means you cant have people doing a 9G turn cos it'll blow you up once you pass the stress limit for your a/c

I tend to fly at 90% realism, flight model on medium, unlimited fuel and ammo unchecked, auto mixture unchecked.
I never turn my engine off on the carrier for that reason and i only fold my wings when taking screen shots :)