some luck (good and bad) can factor into kills too. Last night I had 2 seperate instances where I sent a plane spiraling down missing vital parts (wing, tail, all of the above) only to have a friendly dive in and following the cripple all the way to the ground blasting away and thus leaving me with the assist. One of the tards augered in the process so that one was worth it to me. I find the more mg birds I fly the better (laugh) my hit % is but I have alot less vaporization kills than with cannon birds. Death by bb vs dropping a 2-ton rock on his head. Focusing on each planes weak spot helps too for me (wings on spits, wingtips on lancs, wing root on 24s, etc).