Valkyrie --
One thing about FSO's took me a little time to get used to. Although a lot of people think about "winning" in the MA, or even the less frequent scenarios, in FSO's the emphasis is more on the experience, the immersion, and the people. To be honest, 90% of the time after a 3-frame FSO I have no idea who "won." For what it's worth, I flew a B25C, got to drop my bombs as a horde of zekes jumped our formation over their base, and promptly died. (I didn't bail, and enjoyed watching how stinking many zekes made passes on my twisting fuselage trying to steal someone else's kill!)
Although things are usually balanced, some frames may swing very heavily toward one side or another thanks to mismatches, planning defects, or imperfect execution. In our squad, if we have a bad outcome we just go to the MA after we exit FSO, and blow stuff up in there. Also, unlike the MA, dying in here usually doesn't mean you messed soemthing up -- so relax and remember that most times things swing right back your way next frame.
And if they don't, remember this: As one of my squaddies puts it -- "some nights you're the bird, and some nights you're the statue."