Static, your high alt vulch comment isn't the way you need to go. what you should do though is get the pony "wound up" before you enter a fight. I've learned that to get kills and give yourself a chance of survival, you rarely have to go over say... 12k. What I mean is, if you arrive at a fight at 12k and 300+ on the dial, the high dots aren't really an immediate threat regardless of plane type. If you've got your pony up to speed, the pony can take on any high plane. I'm not saying you'll win every fight, but you can tangle a bit, see if the bogie is going to err, then disengage if the fight looks bad. If you arrive at the fight at speed and encounter multiple high bogies, you can simply leave. Even an La7 will hesitate to run you down if it means he has to chase you half a sector to catch you. Even then, chances are that slower planes have given up pursuit and you've got yourself a nice little 1v1. No gaurantees here but, beating an la7 on your pony's 6 is very doable. get him down on the deck so he can't dive out if ya turn the tables on him. Reverse, engage, and have fun.