I think about this every day I play. This video is a good example. I made several mistakes throughout the fight, one of which finally led to my death. As I sat in the tower (and watched the film later) I recognized these mistakes, learned what to do to not make them again, and that will eventually lead to me improving beyond my current skill level. So my death in this film actually improved my piloting skills. 
Exactly. Everytime I die I try to figure out what I did to cause it and learn from it. You can see some of that process in your comments...esp the ones referring to close calls or near death because of "xxx".
Even in seemingly unwinnable situations or very tough situations I can find ways to improve or at least identify the mistake I made that caused the fight to end with me going down or at least not taking some of them with me. Sometimes it's as simple as SA (didn't pay attention to other red guys showing up to the fight) or misjudging how long it would take for the new red guy to get to me. Other times it's just missing one or two chances to put rounds into one of the red guys and losing out on dropping the odds.
Whatever the case I can always find something or things that I can do to make a difference and improve my chances next time. My loss is always my fault. This of course doesn't mean I will ever not die much as I am very innovative in finding new and exciting ways to whack my cartoon plane
Actually if the guys you were fighting would look at that film they could learn ALOT. I always have a harder time in multi-con engagements if even just ONE of them will be aggressive. It sort of traps my SA on that guy vs. the other guy allowing the other guy to have a much better chance at knocking me down. Of course the risk for that one guy being aggressive is that he may get popped.
Great flying, SA and comments
