Originally posted by Redd
Jabo fighters were never the point Jamusta was making.
It has "generally" been my experience, that the types of people flying at 20K are not interested in a 1-1 fight. They are there to use that advantage to prey on lower planes, engaged planes, buffs etc etc. ie people that can't fight back. They will not engage without significant odds/advantage in their favour.
They are taking the "realism" approach to these sims , and will try to prevent their virtual death at all costs. To enter a 1-1 co-alt engagment is unthinkable to them, as the chances of dying may well approximate 50%, could even be higher, would you gamble with your life on the toss of a coin ?
Of course I could be wrong and they might just all be timid tax accountants - who would know 
What you are saying may be true to a point. But, not for the reason you are stating. The problem with it is, if you are in a plane that is the ideal ' airiel predator' it is likely fast, it is likely well gunned, it is likely pretty full on fuel and it is likely relatively poor at turning, both instantaneously and sustained. This lack of manueverability is further exacerbated by relatively poorer performance in that area at altitude. So, unless you are engaged 1 vs. 1 by the exact same plane, with the exact same E, with a similiar fuel load you are at a severe disadvantage in at least one key area which cannot be negated easily. Combine that with good guns with alot of ammo and you see the margin for error slip to nothingness.
Your typical TnB plane down low is not faced with this same set of issues. There is a wide selection of TnB planes with comparable manueverability. Down low, planes manuever at their best, they are likely carrying 50% gas or less by the time they engage, and they typically have less lethal armament and far less ammunition to spend. By virtue of the fact manueverablity is intrinsically defensive a TnB pilot down low can make a few mistakes and wiggle his way back to even or better fairly easily against an opponent with comparable skill. Combine that with the fact that the average TnB pilot has only to invest 1/3 of the time in a hop to potentially get good results, that makes it worth a gamble for a single kill. A single kill is not even worth the time it takes the 'airiel predator' to climb to optimum operational altitude.
So, it's not necessarily true that the 'predator' with some altitude is disinclined to engage 1 vs. 1 it's that one of any of those factors mentioned can handicap him so the outcome is all but pre-determined in favor of one plane or another prior to the merge.
For example, say you are at 20k in a P51, you have yet to engage, you still have some auxillary fuel left and are engaged by a co-alt P47. Well, right away are in a very tough spot. Likely the P47 has less fuel than you do (ponies are pigs with aux fuel remaining), you know he has a firepower advantage, so one tiny snap shot is all he needs, he is well armored so you will likely require multiple successfull passes to bring him down. He has a performance edge in roll-rate and acceleration especially in a dive and he can out zoom climb you 2 to 1. So, while I will never say this isn't a doable E-fight from the pony's perspective, it's unwise at best, your margin for error as the P51 is zero, the risk/reward ratio is just not sufficient to engage in this spot given the time already invested in the hop. This is typical of your average encounter at altitude.
So, in summary, it's kind of like comparing apples to oranges, that is why this topic always splits into camps, the focus of the two groups is dichotomous from the ground up, literally and figuratively speaking. As the airiel predator you are looking for, at the very least, a multi-kill sortie (4+ kills in most planes as most E-fighters have massive ammoloads unlike TnB planes) for your time invested. You expect to live if possible and you will have to invest a substantial amount of time to do so. As the TNB pilot, you get into the fight quickly, you don't want to carry the gas to loiter around for long periods as it hampers your one main asset, manueverability, you want to engage, kill a single or a couple of foes individually if possible and either return to base or die attempting to get more pelts. Both ways have their charm and appeal, where we run into problems is trying to take the 'value system' instrinsic to one camp and in a judgemental way super-impose it upon the other. Usually those values (what you want from your hop) are in direct opposition. Even if those values were the same as far as 1 vs. 1's are concerned, the E-fighter at altitude has far more mitigating variables to concern himself with than the TnB pilot who can fly 3 of his hops in the time it takes the E-Fighter to fly one of his for an equal kill total.
Zazen
P.S. Redd, that's why I said. "If you want a good 1 vs. 1, come up high where u can isolate a single enemy and force it upon him. " Because, if you are up there, you will have to also be in a faster plane that is good at altitude, it's not necessary that the other guy WANT a 1 vs. 1. You are in a position to FORCE it upon him if you so choose in most cases.
