Dives
Dives are really, really deceptive. Basically, the guy in front will always have an advantage.
When two planes dive, both planes rapidly accelerate. This results in the guy above appearing to gain on the guy below (from his FE), and vice versa. The reason this is nasty is that when a slower diving plane chases a faster one down, he appears to be keeping up when he's actually losing the dive drag race. On the other hand, the guy below sees the guy above appear to pull away, thus gains confidence that he's succeeding when he's diving. Many people are suckered this way into following a guy down even though they don't have a chance of catching their target.
When both bogies level out, speed begins to drop. What this does is cause the guy in front to appear to pull away to the guy behind, and vice versa. If two identical planes perform identical dives, one two seconds behind the other, the guy behind will probably not ever get a decent shot. Very few people can hit a diving plane at ranges greater than two (due to speed-induced nose-up tendencies), thus one usually has to wait until the bottom of the dive to get the shot. But then, just as you line up your shot from 300, the same-type bogie starts to pull away (from your FE's perspective, due to the slowing down). On the other hand, the guy in front sees the guy behind gain a bit on him, another illusion. Usually this results in a jink, assuming he can see the guy behind him, further making life difficult for the guy behind.
This net lag is why the Dora is such a great escape artist. The Dora isn't significantly faster than several other planes in a dive, in fact if a P51, F4U or Ki84 has extra energy over the Dora before going into the dive, the P51/F4U/Ki84 will actually gain ground on the Dora before the level speed superiority kicks in. Unfortunately, when the Dora and the plane following level out, the rapid slowdown causes the Dora pilot to appear to pull away from the Ki84/P51/F4U pilot's FE, denying him a decent close-range shot. This will happen even if the follower was on the Dora's 6 at 200-300 when starting the dive. By the time the speeds stop slowing down (and the slow-down induced "pull away" stops), the Dora is going faster than the follower, and pulls away by sheer speed advantage. Thus even if the follower is 200-300 behind when the maneuver starts, he quickly sees the range go to 400-600, then never get closer, even though he might initially have more energy and in "reality" gains ground.
Micro Warps and that "convenient" warp he does just as you begin shooting
To understand why this occurs, and why the target isn't "causing" the warp intentionally, one must understand how planes are shown on your FE. Your FE receives updates on planes nearby (20K or less, roughly) once every 1/2 second (or longer, depending on a number of factors, including numbers of bogies in the area). The FE simply can't place the plane in one position, then move it when it gets another update, since this would cause a jump, or mini-warp. Thus what it does is receives the position of the plane, it's velocity vector (speed and direction), it's rotational speed (how fast the plane itself is rotating, and which direction), and the plane's acceleration vector (which direction and how fast the plane is accelerating). This information is used to predict the plane's position during the times in between updates, and when a new update is received, the plane is simply moved to the new location and this all repeats. This allows a smoothly maneuvering plane to be displayed on another person's FE almost seamlessly, as you can see when a plane does a normal turn, since the plane appears to fly a rough circle instead of bounce around.
Unfortunately, this system cannot predict a sudden maneuver that is radically different from what was happening during the last update. Thus if someone suddenly rolls, or reverses a fast roll (with a fast-rolling plane), or suddenly pulls back on the stick (or pushed forwards), then the FE might not see this for up to 1/2 second, and when the update *does* arrive, the plane may appear to "jump" 20-30 yards. This is more than enough to ruin a good gun pass.
Now this almost always occurs when an enemy either spots you closing for a guns pass, or when he gets hit. Say you ping him, as you close on his 6. 1-2 seconds later, he hears that ping and yanks the stick left and back. 1-2 seconds later, you see this move. During this 2-4 seconds, you were adjusting your aim, and squeeze off a burst. Suddenly your FE gets the update, and moves the target 30ft to the left just as the shells are about to hit. Your shot misses, conveniently for the target (though *not* intentionally convenient). A variant on this is you are closing to the kill, he sees you at 900 behind him (700 to you), he rolls suddenly (or does something else radical), then 1-2 seconds later, at 300 out, you are lined up perfectly, about to fire, then "boom" your FE gets an update, and moves his plane 30-40 feet, blowing your high-speed guns pass. Again, not intentional by the target, but an artifact of net lag, the 1-2 updates per second, and the smoothing code between these updates.
Warp on Demand
This is also yet another difficult stunt. Warp On Demand is only useful if you can "disappear" for a few seconds, then reappear in a more advantageous position (including escapes). Unfortunately, if the host is not receiving updates on your position from you (necessary in order to cause your image to warp on someone's FE), you are not receiving your target's position either (thus have no idea where he will be when you appear again, he might appear on your 6).
Now things get even more complicated. If your connect goes to pot, you cannot predict what your plane was doing last on his FE. Your plane could be flying in a straight line, making a very easy target, for all you know. It may have been slowing down, making for a nice low-speed-target gun pass. You can never be certain, and the average is split down the middle (a warp will either hinder the other guy, or help him kill you). Plus there is the risk of never reconnecting at all (giving him the kill anyway if you were pinged at least once before warping). Basically, the risks of Warp On Demand are great, while the benefits are not guaranteed. Thus there is little to no incentive for Warp On Demand, and trust me, without any benefit, most people won't do it (except for the occasional thrill). Thus most apparent lucky warps are almost always due to factors other than an intentionally-induced warp.
