Speed doesn't only help survival, but also helps killing a direct way (enemy can't escape easily, has much less reaction time) and - often overlooked - allows YOU to reach the enemy before your teammates in slower planes can do.
That's one of the biggest downsides in flying slow planes like a Hurri I or I-16 - you get your 12 cleared by faster & heavier armed planes before you can close in for the kill.
Good point. From a "game" perspective, I didn't think about that to be honest....and I should have as it happens to me quite a bit when flying the 110.
![frown :frown:](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown.gif)
Experience has taught me to get fairly close before shooting. Why? Because the 12 clearing types usually don't mind flying THROUGH your stream of 20mm and 30mm i.e. Killshoot and *poof*...Instant Tower for you. So the choices are:
1.) Get close, make it harder for the guy to nudge in but run the risk of losing the kill to a faster plane
2.) Firing farther away but risk ending up in the tower due as a 51 dweeb comes blazing in to get the kill and runs through your fire.
Third option, of course, is to fly away from friendlies as much as possible...which I generally try to do...but it seems to be more and more difficult to as the decline in numbers tends to compress fights in the MA to a few very large furballs. Ah well...