I ran off a streak of 55 kills in a 38 this tour before failing to rope a Yak9T

My P38 "zen" is apparently spent though since I haven't been able to string more than 26 since and last 10 sorties in it barely 1:1 k/d w <40% survival rate. Go figure...
Last tour got 47 mostly in a P47
Previous month was 39 in F6F
It seems to me that two keys to survival are constantly looking around followed by listening to that little voice saying "Dude, there's 26 of them bish the other Knit is on fire!"