Why must the "dweeb" moniker be attached to any plane ? Why must one's measure of manliness be attributed to what plane they fly ?
You have never seen me accuse anybody of being a "dweeb" for any reason and you never will. If I get shot down in my P-38, or any plane for that fact, is not because "he" flew a "dweeb" plane or one of Beet1e's uber trio ... it's because I screwed up ... simple as that.
There is a enormous amount of new players in this game, and if one could regress back to when they first started flying this game or any flight sim, they would probably realize that they too chose the EASIEST plane to fly that would get them some kills. It's only natural.
When I started, the first plane that I took was the P-51 (for the reasons that Urchin stated) and the outcome was miserable. Can you say ... stall ... flat-spin ... auger. So, I was told to jump into the Spit IX. Well now were talkin'. I could fly it without dieing before I reached a target. I learned alot flying this plane.
I got tired of the Spit, so I chose the La-7 mainly cause so many people were pissin' and moanin' about it so I had to see what it was all about. Well, we all know its strenghts, but not all know its weaknesses. This is not an easy plane to dogfight in, but its moniker is attained by those that choose the "one-pass-haul-butt" move, along with the fact that it can and does run down the majority of the planes available.
If and when you see an La-7 stick around and actually fight, you know you got someone behind the stick that can fight, and you will be in for a good fight. Again, I learned alot flying this plane.
Next was the Spit V. I chose this, cause it was the opposite of the La-7, this plane CANNOT run ... you are forced to fight. Granted, its a twisty-turny bugger, but that is what its strong points are, but it is a big fat target to any and all once the fight starts. Again, I learned alot flying this plane.
Now I am onto the P-38 and trying to learn how to correctly fly this monster. Yes its fast, yes it has a great gun loadout and centerline guns, but it too is a BIG fat target and when not flown correctly, you will not survive very long ... can u say compression.
In between these main rides, I flew a smattering of other planes mainly leaning towards US naval aircraft (FM2 : F6-F : F4-U) and learned alot flying these planes.
My point is not to give you a detailed history of my fight sim progression, but to point out that my progression is more than likely very similar to alot of the players that we have in the game today. There are alot of new players coming to this game everyday and they are climbing the progression latter, which more than likely puts them into the uber trio plane set. OH MY GOD !!!.
Also, the degrading smack talk that flows over ch 1 I believe forces people to be timid. All the crap such as ...
"1234563 you no skilled newb number guy ... you suk"
some newbie reads this crap and says to themselfs ... wow, I am not going to set myself up for that type of abuse. Once the tables turn on me, I am outta Dodge !!!
The response should have been ...
"1234563 you started your merge way too soon, next time wait until you are closer <
>"
Bottom line to all of this ... so fediddlein' what !!! Quit worrying and crying about what the other guy flies. Get better at ACM when dealing with ANY plane or just quit.
Sorry .. I didn't realize that I wrote a wall-of-text ... 
