I didn't rearm at all. landed and exited every sortie.
the whole key is not staying in one place ever and keeping a decent amount of E.
yet I still got bounced numerous times.

I did have some trouble with a few knights who were on a mission to kill me so I switched planes around a bit to keep em guessing.
here is the results I had with the different planes I flew so far (note the death from ack does not show up)
40 kills, 0 deaths in the P-38L
25 kills, 0 deaths in the P-51D
11 kills, 0 deaths in the Spitfire Mk IX
10 kills, 0 deaths in the F4U-1D
06 kills, 0 deaths in the B-17G
93 kills, 0 deaths from enemy players, 1 death from enemy AI