Here's some advice from a rookie who's been shopping for planes for a while. The high-end planes the people have been touting to you, including the Spit, F4U and P-38 have varying degrees of issues that make them somewhat difficult for a noob to handle.
The Spit is tricky to land (you can roll off the runway very easily because of the narrow track gear) and can stall or spin if you don't know what you're doing. Plus, figuring out how to use the guns can be a problem (convergence, mix of cannons and machine guns, etc.).
The F4U was called the "ensign eliminator" for a reason. Unless you can watch your speed and use flaps, you're not going to get the best out of the machine, and it has some nasty handling characteristics as well.
The P-38 requires good rudder discipline to squeeze out the best performance. Plus, it's a big honking target.
The F6F has a lot of good qualities, but it doesn't quite have the maneuverability you seem to be looking for.
It sounds like you want a plane that is maneuverable, durable, easy to land, and has reasonable firepower.
The planes I would recommend with these qualities are:
Brewster: Pro's: Best-turning plane in the game, can take a reasonable amount of damage, won't stall or spin too much, lands extremely easy, and has 4x 50cal guns.
Cons: slow, no WEP, can't catch anything and not very good against bombers.
FM-2: Pro's Great turning ability, durable, easy to land, 4x 50cal guns. Kind of like a Brewster on steroids. Very stable. Also, you can fly it for carrier ops.
Cons: limited payload for bombing strikes, also slow (but not as bad as the Brewster) and also cannot catch bombers.
One outside possibility is the P-40E, which has durability plus a 6x 50cal gun layout. It's not as maneuverable and (in my experience) there's a specific speed where it must be flown to get the best out of it, and it's much harder to fly if it gets slow. I did get some good results with it early on, but I switched to the Brew as my low-alt plane of choice.
Bear in mind that none of these rides have decent fighter/bomber capability. I would recommend using the F6F for that, or a Mustang or Jug if you want to try a high speed fighter.
One last word of advice: Try before you buy. Take a plane up in the Training area and fly it around for a bit. Try to make it spin or stall out. See how it feels. Kick the tires, tune the radio, test the brakes and check out the plush interiors. Then try it in the MA.
-Muzzy
