my 2 cents
If you are hovering over the fight, and have not made any attempt at a pass on the enemy's below you, or basically just flying around in circles waiting, the 60 second rule DOES apply. KOTH is about fighting, not just being the last man standing.
If you are over a fight, and no other con's in the area, and are just circling waiting, you HAVE to fight if you are there over 60 seconds.
I'll give you two examples what I consider "acceptable" hovering.
I approach a fight, there are three con's on the deck, one at 4k, and myself at say 6k. Who am I going to go for? Well, for me, the 4k guy is the threat, so I will fight him. Granted, I will probably b/z the guy, and attemt to "herd" 'em into the OTHERS fighting, and hopefully they mix it up, and I can cherrypick 'em at my leisure. That is ok in my book. You are ON the 4k con, and are maneuvering them into a position for you to kill them, and not blowing your E advantage. You are not just flying around in circles. You ARE in the fight, you just are not t/b on the deck w/ 'em. Many (most) will do this. Some feel that it breaks the spirit of KOTH. I consider it 100% acceptable. KOTH is not just about knife fighting. It's about SA, and flying smart as well.
I will use the last fight of KOTH for my second example. Myself and ManeTMP were going at it, and Jish was over both of us w/ alt. Mane was deck, I was prob 2k over 'em, and Jish 3k over me. Jish basically let us tear each other apart. He DID make a couple zooms into the fray, but having my hands full with Mane, I wasn't checking the time. In THIS example, I feel that Jish would have to at least make ONE b/z attack per min. minimum. In this example, I hit Mane's oil, and fuel iirc, and caused him to blow most his ammo trying to catch me zooming w/ that reversal he does (he REALLY wanted me dead, and shot like crazy). Eventually, Mane caught me on a good d600 ish shot, and I lost my tail. Jish ended up being 4k over a plane that was leaking fuel and oil, and had hardly any ammo. Smart flying on his part. He did the correct thing in my opinion, flew smart, and took the KOTH by doing so. Now some might say he shoulda dove in, and mixed it up with me and mane, and shouldn't have just stayed above waiting us out. I disagree with that. As long as he was not hovering for over a min. at a time, and was at least somewhat actively attacking, he did the right thing.
About fight avoidance. As long as your are chasing a con, you do not have to break off that con, and jump into another fight below you. This has been argued about a lot. Let's say myself and another pilot are both "ON" a guy, and chasing him. We are both 1-2k back from them, but only 500' from each other. Do we have to fight each other because we are 500' apart? In my opinion no we do not. We can choose to fight whomever we want. IF we are already ON someone, and that someone tries to drag us to others fighting, we do not have to break off and fight THOSE guys. Silly argument. If you think about it, using that logic, the guy doing the dragging would also have to quit running, and attack those same planes he drug us to. Makes no sense to be upset that when you drug someone to another plane, and the guy you are dragging didn't break off you start fighting the new con. With that logic, you yourself would have to immediatly attack the new con in that situation.
This avoidance situation get's even more muddled when TWO TIMERS are involved. I can not count how many times I was sitting with two wins, and had 3-5 guys all attacking me, and not each other. Did I get upset? Not really, no. Is that "wrong"? Nope. They can choose to fight who they want, and by eliminating the two timer, they get to fight on for another round. THAT is part of KOTH in my opinion. Does it get frustrating for the two timers sometimes? Sure. After 5-10 rounds of being ganged like that I do get somewhat frustrated, but I also understand that it is how it works. Heck, it can be alot of fun as well. Now, let's say you see a two timer, and between you and them are two mini furballs below you. Do you HAVE to dive into the closest furball and fight? I don't feel you do. You can choose to fly by those fights, and attack the two timer. BUT we might consider a rule re. this. If, let's say, to get to said two timer, you have to fly for over a min. to reach them, flying by several fights. I would think a good idea would be that if you have to fly by fights for over a min to reach said two timer, you are breaking the 60 second rule. For this rule to apply, we have to decide how far out you can be to be considered ON, chasing, or attacking someone. Icon range? 3k? It should be decided, and a fixed distance. I believe it should be icon range. If I am within icon range of a con, and flying right at them, I should be considered actively engaged with said pilot.
Interesting topic.
