Bad Dad said:
fuck the RC plane level....
and it was quite cool jumping off the GG bridge. then swimming around until I got a sail boat. driving it across to the marin side and scoring a powerboat, then scoring the amphibious plane and getting shot down....
Can you get the plane without getting shot down?
SPOILERS AHEAD (of a sort)
yes, you can. But you have to complete a few more missions first. The zero and car theft missions aren't a requirement, but you need to complete the storyline through taking down the drug ring run by Jizzy B, Torino, and the striped-shirt mexican dude (can't recall his name.)
Taking out Jizzy's semi-easy, if you're persistent, know where to get armor, and run like hell to the door when the shooting starts. Then it turns into a drive-by car chase all over town (and you're in a limo, so you can't pre-stage a good fast car or a bike to make things easier... I tried that, ended up losing two good cars cos the game 'forgets' them during the cinematic.)
Taking down the Mexican also involves an 'old friend' from Los Santos and a serious bunch of gang members. So again, stock up on armor, ammo (if you've hitman level on either the AK or an SMG, you're good - you want to be able to put lead on target faster than the bad guys do.) After that, you're in another drive-by chase.. only this one involves boats. Good thing you got some practice with that speedboat earlier.
As for Torino... well, lets just say you might want to get lots of practice with a rocket launcher, taking out moving targets.... and no, you don't get the guided missile version. Sorry.
I will say this: the Desert storyline doesn't have that many missions in it, but there's a LOT going on out there, lots of surprises hidden. I take it you found one of the aquaplanes - there's also a boat school (where you can get a couple of decent boats if you do well), the flight school, all sorts of aircraft hidden in some unlikely places, and (if you haven't yet done it) the EASIEST place to do the Paramedic missions (complete 12 levels and get your health points doubled.)
Hint: the flight school is a bitch, but do your damned best, and go back and retake some of the tests once you get some experience. The reward for all gold in the flight tests is probably the sickest damn helicopter ever, AND you can use it to chase down crooks in Vigilante mode (plus you're in a chopper so the cops can't touch you until you get to three stars, plus YOUR chopper's way more durable and better armed than THEIR chopper is!)
If you get to level 12 on the Vigilante missions, your armor points are doubled, which is very useful in the gang war shitstorm in the endgame. There is a cheat/exploit that allows you to pass this without doing hardly anything, but I won't post it here.
Once you pass flight school, you can drive onto the flightline at any airport, and "borrow" any plane you find. No more sneaking over the wall. You've also got a hangar to save your planes in at the flight school. Plus, if you decide you don't feel like landing the aircraft, if you use Triangle to 'bail out' -- you automatically equip a parachute, so as long as you deploy it appropriately you won't go splat after jumping out of the plane....
Another way to get from one city to another without worrying about doing the driving -- after one of the missions (can't recall which one), the train stations open up so that you can hijack the TRAINS. There's a series of freight missions to pass (basically get the train to each station within the time limit, stop the train at the appropriate spot, but don't derail it in transit by going too fast)... once you do that you can hop onto any train as a passenger... but hey, I like being the engineer, basically you just gas it until you get up to a certain clip, then set back and wait until you get close to your destination, then start slowing down.
