The problem I see in game is people (win the war crowd specifically) are more inclined to either A get in a man gun at a base being attacked or B run supplies so the ack comes back up instead of C get in a whirb or plane to defend it.
Junky, you are a good stick and a worthy opponent, so please don't take this as an attack on you, because nearly everyone in the game does this:
Circling an airfield at 3K away is not looking for a fight, it is looking for an easy vulch kill. When I see someone doing that, they are my first target with the 88. Poof, goodbye would be vulcher. System: Natasha shot you down.
Then I will up my fighter and defend the base.
If you are looking for a good fight, loiter just inside the radar circle, well outside of ack range, not 3K from the field.
As you see in my more lengthy comment above, my belief in having effective ack (auto and/or manned) is to push the fights away from the runways themselves, so that good fights can be had.
<S>