Ok here's a reply from one us Newbee nikdweebs. I've only been playing AH for 4 or 5 weeks now and I tried several of the planes at first. I had the most success in the niki so I practiced with it some offline, got to know the plane a little better and now I'm having FUN with it!
Unless I missed something somewhere thats what I thought you were suppose to do in a GAME! HAVE FUN!! I certainly dont consider the nik an uber plane but it does seem to be a nicely balanced plane. As far as speed it seems down right slow quite often. I liked the F6F in AW because it was a balanced plane that was great at nothing but good at everything.
The 'trick' to killing them is to simply come in with an advantage. Oh, and to know your plane better than he knows his. Thats pretty much says it all doesnt it? I've gotten jumped, pounced upon, bounced, ganged, vulched, you name it, by virutually every plane in the game. I had an La5 & Yak9 dance on my head for a good 5 or 6 minutes the other day until they finally shredded every usable part of my plane.
Was I mad? Mad that I'd died but not mad at the guys who killed me. They picked their ride, I picked mine, they got advantage over me, flew their planes well, didnt relinquish their advantage and killed me.
to them.
I heard someone say the other day that "people who have patriotic pride about imaginary countries in a virtual game world have some issues." I think anyone who gets upset because of the planes people choose to fly has some issues.
The only enemy planes I hate are those above me or on my 6 
If they are below me or in front of my guns I just LOVE em! I really, really do!
