Heh, well I never said anything about low fuel or whatever but if you engaged with low fuel you should probably see the fight out.
Well sometimes I actually DO disengage, when the fight is turning out to be one sided. of course, at that point it's often no longer possible to disengage at all.
Earlier this week I was cussing at myself for not disengaging from a 1vs1.. I was La-7, enemy was Ki-61. There was one point when I thought "Oh, that's not looking good, what are you doing, Snail?". But I was still optimistic that I could turn it around: "Hey, I'm a good pilot! And I'm flying the mighty Lala". A few moments later I knew I badly misjudged about anything that I could have misjuged. In retrospect, I was really a bit upset I didn't disengage when I had the opportunity, but instead I made a wrong descision.
I am trying to stay alive, that's my style of "realism", pretending to be a pilot
But it's all a delicate balance. Disengage too early too often, and there is survival but rarely success. And frustration & boredom. Disengage too often too late, and it's dying time, which is no success to me either. Getting the right mix, being able to judge when to stay and when to go (and go as late as possible!) is part of the "skills" i'm trying to impove, along with ACM, shooting, etc.
I fly basically the very same "survivalist" style from my day 1 in this game, but with getting more and more experience, I'm disengaging less and less and killing more and more. I'm getting better at judging the situation. I'm able to stay longer, more able to kill my enemy in a fight, I'm willing to "risk" more and fighting from a seemingly disadvantaged position.
But I want to get kills AND I want to get home, which is an integral part of my "mission".
Yes, lot of text and idle talking, but I'm tired and I can't log in to run, err fight