Just to sum this up. I know I've written this elsewhere but... Scores as a means to objectively label someone as good, better or worse than another is futile. Everyone flies different planes, in different ways, at different times of the day or night. That being said, Fighter rank in particular, assuming it was obtained without cheating does paint a broad brush stroke as to whether the person has a clue or not how to fighter and how generally effective he is at it.
Let's take person A who has 15 kills in 72 hops, a 0.5 K/D ratio and kills about 2 or 3 planes an hour with a 2% hit percentage...Well, Slapshot may get on this board and tell me all day long he's the best down and dirty deck-master, twisty plane flyer there is, but I won't believe him. Why? because he's just not effective, he's not getting the job done, the job of a fighter is to destroy enemy aircraft as quickly and efficiently as possible, he's not achieving that.
The 'purest' measure of the various facets of skill in the widely variable art of fightering is really simple, it's called "Effectiveness". At the end of your flights ask these questions. Were you successfull or not? Did you dispatch as many opponents as you could in a reasable amount of time? If you didn't survive , did you at least take a couple extra of the bastards to the grave with ya? If the answer is yes, then you were "effective' if the answer is no, and your sheet looks like person A above..You need to practice, film, read books, and find a mentor, because you are NOT 'effective' in a fighter..Not matter how many of your squadmates or friends herald your skills...
As a contrast lets look at person B who has 180 kills in 45 hops w/ a 10 to 1 K/D ratio and kills about 8 enemy an hour. Now again Slapshot or whoever may get on this board and preach to the angles in heaven how this person is a no good swine who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag and person A could take him to the DA and destroy him with his eyes closed, but I won't believe him. No matter how he got those kills player b is quite 'effective' he is doing a good job of clearing the skies of the enemy in an efficient manner, how he goes about it is his own business.
So, in summary, at least where fighter rank sub-stats are concerned. They may not be a usefull tool for determining the absolute skill level of one player compared to another, but what it is an excellent indicator of is relative effectiveness of players at fightering. The proof is in the pudding , so to speak, the pudding being the sub-stats that comprise fighter rank.
