As a very experienced fighter pilot, I just want to point out mistakes I see enemy pilots make far too often.
Ok, for gods sakes, do what your plane is designed to do. It is far too often that I see a fighter on my team strafing away at enemy objectives, tallying up all of 7 kills. Meanwhile, they completely ignore the enemy attack planes and bombers blowing seven shades out of our team. As a fighter, your priority is to take out enemy planes. It’s what the plane is designed to do, and with a little practice, it’s damn good at it. You will get as many if not more kills than you would get going after enemy troops in a fighter by targeting aircraft once you get good at it, and it’s a good help to your team.
On the subject of dogfighting, I’m gonna quickly name a few fatal mistakes I see pilots make: -Ignoring an attacking enemy plane to focus on getting a kill somewhere else. I’ve taken to calling this “tunnel visioning”. I think the mindset some people get is they’ll have enough time to get one last kill before they have to deal with the guy behind him, but trust me, you don’t. With a fighter and good aim, any plane will be a fireball in a matter of seconds, so if someone’s on your tail, just move. They’re the priority now. -This ones kinda simple. Say if an enemy plane is coming at you from your front right, around 2 or 3 o’clock. One thing I see people do is try to run and turn away from the attacker. In trying to run, all you’re doing is just giving the attacker your tail. Instead, despite how counterintuitive it may seem at first, turn into the attacker. This shortens the amount of time they have to shoot at you, and also doesn’t give them your tail. -Flying low and fast through objects to try and evade an enemy. This one kinda depends who you’re up against. This tactic could force an inexperienced pilot to crash, but an experienced pilot will easily counter this by simply letting you do your thing below and just follow you from above. This goes both ways. If a plane you’re chasing is trying to go fast and low around obstacles, let him make the mistakes. Just stay above him and take shots from above when you can. If he crashes, you may not get a kill, but you’ve kept yourself alive to keep helping your team. -One thing that’s kinda spotty is stalling your plane to try and shake an enemy.