Every aircraft has its strenghts and weakness. Make sure you know you know and understand your plane weakness and its strenghts, by studying it and by flying it all the time. Read and study the Characterisic of the plane, and the planes performance, and its stress factor's. Then fly it in free flight, put the plane through its paces, see how it handles when you put it through different manuvers and stresses. Learn the planes roll-rate, turn rate, climb rate, and so on. Once you have learn your planes chracteristics, you have a better understanding in how to fly your plane in Combat. If you can out-climb, out-accelerate, out-turn or out gun your foe it will change the way you fly. You would also be wise to learn the other aircraft characteristics that you most likely encounter in IL2FB/AEP/PF. Learn their strenghts and weakness and their vulnerabilities. Knowing your planes and the enemy planes characteristics and vulnerabilities will give you an advantage on how you will fly against them. The 52nd Fighter Group flys both the Spitfire Mark Vb and the P-51B/C/D's. learn their characteristics and performance.
2)"KEEP YOUR HEAD ON A SWIVEL":
Visualizing the position and movements of fast moving objects in a 4D-Dimensional space is difficult. This is where Situation Awareness (SAw) and Situation Assessment (SAs) becomes very important. It's what separtate's fighter pilots from fighter aces. Being a good shot is useless skill if you can't keep track of the enemy.
In almost every Air Combat Flight Simulations you can use the joystick hat switch and the keyboard commands,
(also you can buy a Nostromo speed pad to program a number of commands on it), and if you are one of the lucky ones who have the TrackIR (which I would Recommend if you have the money) to rapidly scan the skies. (I can not "STRESS ENOUGH the IMPORTANCE of having GOOD SITUATION ASSESSMENT AND AWARENESS" in any Combat Flight Sims). Also plese remember in the world of Virtual Combat Flight Sims, your combat views are limited and not like the real world, (Unless you have TRACKIR) of Flight. Where you can move your head around and see things. So learn your keyboard commands and learn how to use them.
3) "USE THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE":
When you come in from behind or below the enemy, he can not see you. But dropping in from above gives you the potential for greater speed. While closing in, use the enemy blind spots to your advantage. If you can come out of the sun or from the clouds, hold your fire till you know for sure you will cause greater damage to his plane. If you start firing your guns at a greater range and you miss, then you have lost the element of surprise and have given the enemy a warning of you present, therefore be able to start a defensive manuvers, which then you have lost your advantage. Also if you are diving on an enemy plane from a greater hights, check your airspeed, if need be pull your throttle back and drop your combat flaps to help you from overshooting the enemy plane. If you overshoot him, then you have become the hunted and not the hunter.
4) "STAY ONE MOVE AHEAD OF THE ENEMY":
A good Fighter Pilot's actions in the present are dictated by his prediction of the future. If you merely react to your opponents actions, you will get shot down. If you can anticipate his actions and moves and respond intuitively withput hesitation, you will emerge the victor.
"NOTE": Everyone who flies in any Air Combat Sims has a tendancy to develop certain flying habits, some good and some bad. Almost every sim pilots get into these certain habits and will fly them all the time. When you go into certain rooms all the time, watch and learn their flying habits, once you have gotten a general ideal of their flying habits, then you will be able to anticpate their moves and be able to be ahead of them and shot them down. But on the other hand, remember they will be watching your flying habits too. So always try and change you flying habits and your moves, don't fly the same way, keep changeing them and your flying habits.
"TRADE ALTITUDE AND AIR SPEED"
5a) "ARE YOU FLYING TOO FAST"?
There are few ways of slowing down. One way to slow down is to pull back on the stick and you will slow down as you climb. ("Be careful though, pulling up to shake an enemy off your 6 is dangerous move. Your airspeed will drop quickly and a slow plane under is a sitting duck"). Another way to slow down is to pull back on your throttle and drop your Combat Flaps, once you have slowed down, you can raise your Combat Flaps back up.
Also when you are on the enemy 6, watch him carefully, they will cut their throttle back in order to make you overshoot them, use your throttle, when he cuts his you cut yours and drop your Combat Flaps, use your throttle to maintain a constant airspeed with the enemy plane. Learn how to use your throttle and Combat Flaps, when to drop combat flaps and cut throttle and when just to cut only the throttle and so forth.
5b) "ARE YOU FLYING TOO SLOW"?
If you have altitude, then nose your plane over into a dive to gain airspeed. Trading altitude for airspeed is an essential part of all aerial combat.
Just learning when to do it is the important thing.
5c) "FLY SLOWER TO TURN FASTER"
When you ride a bicycle around a corner quickly, you want to go fast, but not to fast. It's the same with a plane. At fast speeds, centrifugal force causes the plane's turn radius to increase and the turn rate to decrease. Every plane has a speed at which maximum-performance turns are possible. In general though, a slower flying plane will out turn a faster flying plane. Learn what your plane turning capabilities are and your plane maximum performance turning capabilities are.
5d) "TURN INTO YOUR OPPONENT":
Turning into your opponent direction of movement increases the angle between your movement and his guns, making you harder to hit. Turning away from your opponent decreases the angle, making it easier for him to get on your six and thus making you an easy target.
5e) "USE DEFLECTION SHOOTING":
Attacking an opponent aircraft from the front or from behind is easy. Just aim and shoot when you are close enough to hit the target. Attacking from other angles is more complicated. You must coordinate your shooting with your speed and fire ahead of the target, so that his plane either runs into the bullets or he turns into your bullets. This difficult skill is called "DEFLECTION SHOOTING" and is a mark of a good combbat pilot. Learning it is essential to your success.
"NOTE": More will be covered on this subject in the Flight Training "Gunnery Section".
5f) "NEVER STOP AN ATTACK ONCE YOU'VE INITIATION IT":
Never break off an attack once you have initiated it. Once you are in weapons range, and you decide to turn and run, you will be setting yourself up as an easy target.
When you spot an enemy plaane and he is a distance way, you must decide if you are going to attack him or not. If your close and he is coming towards you, you then must attack him first. This means firing before (But just slightly before) you are within effective weapons range. The ideal of firing now is to force the Bandit to evade your fire. Although the chances of getting a kill is nearly nil, getting the Bandit guns off your general direction is almost as valuable. If you succeed, you have set yourself up in a highly dersirable position, of being able to maneuver onto his six or get a good deflection shot at him. Once you have started the attack do not stop, until you have either cripple him good enough as not to have to worry about him, or have shot him down, and if need be, do not be afraid to call for help from one of your Squadron mates.
"NOTE": Only attack when you have the Greatest advantage over your opponent, and only fire when you are sure of infecting the greatest damage to the opponent.
5g) "DON'T SHOOT TILL HE FILLS YOUR WINDSCREEN"
The one thing most pilots do is to start shooting at an opponent when thay are still far away. By doing that, you only letting your opponent know you are there, But you are also wasting your AMMO!! Wait till you are so close that you are sure of getting good hits on your opponent and with this you save on your ammo. It is better to wait till your opponent fills your cockpit windscreen, then open up on him, USING SHORT BURST, and watch where your tracers rounds are hitting. This strategy takes less conccentration then deflection shooting, but isn't always practical, especially if you are meeting the enemy head on.
6) "DO NOT OVER SHOOT YOUR ENEMY"
Have you ever had this happen to you? You are flying to the Combat Zone and just before you get there, you see a Bandit just below you.