Thanks, Nifty. I actually got the compression thing figured out a couple of weeks ago. I was using the dive flaps, but pushing over too fast and compressing anyway. That darned P38 will compress with the dive flaps extended in the game, which is a modeling error, as near as I can tell. I now turn off the darned combat trim and dial in nose-up, too. It seems to make it better. With my increasing skill in getting on target, I don't need to hold the dive so long, and that also helps.
I have also discovered that I was not extending far enough before turning back for the second pass. Now I take her out far enough to get clear of all the spittys and lalas, and again, I survive more often. I still have a tendency to make one too many pass, and try to get just one more strat. Oh, well, I guess I will learn. It is very tempting to try to shoot down one of those guys defending the field strat from 50 feet above it. What are they thinking?
Yes, if you drop higher you can get away more often. The other side of that one is accuracy suffers. There's always a trade-off. Oh, well.
I really think the answer is to work with a team, so the ack is diluted and you can support each other's efforts. Less would call that a "herd of suicide dweebs overwhelming the field to ruin his fun". I would call that team play and a real gas.
I wonder how many WW2 fighter pilots did the AH "dawn patrol" gig these furballers are so in love with? Gabreski, Johnson, Foss, et. al. flew as a disciplined group with a mission. I really think that the strat game is much more representative of the real WW2 than the furball game. That's just my opinion, though. I suppose that the Elite Furballers Association gets more fun out of shooting people down, then insulting them on channel 1, than I get from achieving a transitory goal. I hope so, because they sure seem miserable when they complain about my gameplay.
I'll bet Less and Apache never join missions. Come to think of it, I don't think I would want them in one I am on, they can't be depended on to maintain focus long enough to get the job done. They'd run off to cherry pick the first low contact they came across, and biotch continuosly about how the other players aren't doing it right.