I'd go against him in my plane of choice with him in a TBM just to see how it goes... 
Anyways, I've read through most of the posts but not all...
I typically avoid the HO if I can.... I.E. if we are merging and it will cost me E to bank/rudder over for a snap shot then yes, I avoid it..... but from a distance on the merge if I try to nose over/under and the opponent matches me then I assume that he isn't looking for the cold merge to begin the jockeying for position, he's looking for a guns solution- meaning if I continue to merge clean he gets a FQ shot because my guns are off.. So instead I kick in a little rudder, kick in opposite bank, which slides my tail around and gives my plane an "awkward" look and give him a spray or two as he runs his guns out... Does it work all the time? no. Does it work often enough? Yeah, I don't get all pissy about HO's- for the most part 
don't get me wrong, I prefer to shoot your tails off after saddling up on you. however, if I hate merges, generally dont do so well in them even if we both go cold merge, so I dont usually get to see that fight develop. And if I enter an ongoing fight or one in which my squaddies and I am outnumbered- make no mistake I will take every shot I have- snap, ho, FQ, RQ, whatever in an effort to survive the fight and to help my squaddies... Anyways, I've flown AH for about 3 years and flew FA since I was 14.. Im 27 now... I could fly against the best in FA and break even on k/d... (I AM NOT A SCORE TARD.. just saying) but in here I tend to do the fly-15-minutes-to-die-in-1-to-3-minutes routine. (Yeah, I make it past 15 seconds XD)
yea.......it's always fun fighting him. i've been luckky enough to spend some time in the ta with him too.
i generally try to avoid the ho, unless the guy i'm fighting keeps trying....then eventually, i get pissed enough, that i line up, and fire back. i normally lose those.
something i've been noticing lately, 'specially in mw, is that they'll try a kind of "offset" ho. what i mean by that, is that you're lined up to go past them in the merge. they look like they slam the rudder, to point their nose at ya as ya pass, and take their shot. although i still suck at turning their attempted ho into my advantage, at least when they do that particular move, it gives me plenty of separation, to try to reset the fight into something more fun.
the other thing i've been noticing a lot lately in mw, is people bailing. ya tag em, they bail. saddle up on em at low alt, juuuust get lined up for that perfect shot, they bail. hell......i GAVE my six to a b-25 last night, just to get him to turn off of a set of friendly buffs he was chasing.....he took it, was 800 out following me up in the rope......as i turned her over to come back down on him, he bailed.
