Flossy, whether you WANT to fly a fighter or not is one thing, and that's an entirely personal choice. Whether you have the ability to fly them is another, and my money says that you do, if you care to. As for surviving very long, quarter of the trick is to not take off from an airfield that is under attack. Take off into enemy-free airspace, and you're away and climbing.
Another quarter is learning a few simple rules about using fighters in combat, like fly with (or as) a wingman, fly line abreast until you enage the enemy so that you can check each others tails (if you fly line ahead, the rear one can be picked off before either of you realises there'sany danger); conserve enery; alt is good; don't HO fighters but DO HO bombers (usually; B26 is an exception); don't 6 attack buffs but DO 6-attack fighters.
A third quarter is knowing your aircraft as well as possible, and this is where I start falling down. I'm just not quite interested enough in all the minutae of fighter combat to be bothered with anything other than gross characteristics of planes, a few rough and ready facts, like which planes are "Turn & Burn" planes, and which "Boom & Zoom". But I'm a Bomberpiloten, damnit, Jim, not a flippin' Jagdflieger! :-)
The fourth quarter is innate talent, and there I'm decidedly mediocre. Even so, I can put up a reasonable fight, not least because a surprisingly large percentage of the players in the online sims Ive tried so far dont seem to have grasped the first two quarters listed above. Innate talent can and does take some people a long way, but if they dont use that talent in an informed way, then even someone like me with little talent but an understanding of some of the theory can make a reasonable showing against them.
I'm sure if you ever feel the urge to get the hang of fighters better there's plenty fo folk would be happy to give you a hand, Flossy - myself included, although for anything beyond the basics, you'd be better off getting someone else to help you!
Esme
PS: Who likened JABOing to bombing back there? Heresy! If it hasnt got a bombsight it just ISN'T the same! :-)
