First off, HO'in should never be a "First" option on an intial merge when a con is 5ticks out, But there are cases when a HO for the initial pass is the only thing you can do (even then you can still aviod it)...
Instead of diving under a plane on merge, try a slight turn and slight dive have him at maybe 25 degrees off the front..(What Kweassa Mentioned in his first post) This allows you to either come back on em and trail him while he thinks of what to do (no guns in his rear, pretty safe place to be) if you break to early the con can saddle up on your 6 easy so careful... By entering a dive and reaching 500mph, thats no good you've just hand cuffed yourself.. unless you're in a p47, or some other plane which can pull some wicked moves at those speeds.. otherwise any plane will take that much longer to reverse at higher speeds... In knife fighting turn battles sometimes its a plus to have less E, by this I mean the slower you are means a tighter turn.. But not for long, usually when E states are that low you better kill, or be killed...
70% of the time I love to enter a fight with an "Appeared" disadvantage, because the attacker gets into an Offensive state of mind, and gets into the "I've got this kill bagged" syndrom.... oh so many mistakes can be made in this state of mind.. Unless you are an Ace... and if you are... you'll be some what defensive always aware and expecting any counter manuever that will come his way..
Nothing better than experiencing a great dog fight ....
So stay frosty, keep your wings level and don't worry... you'll live to fly another day around here..
-BM
