Yes, I have learned a lot faster by joining a squad. It
still will take you a long time to be "effective" in this game.
Go into it with the attitude that you WILL get killed at
least 10 times for every 1 kill you make (or more), but each
time you go up, record your engagements (Using ALT R)
and review them at the end of the night. Use this as a great
tool to see what you did to get you into a bad situation, and
what it would take the next time to avoid that.
The film viewer is awesome (if the viewer decides not to crash on you..it's still a bit buggy). The films let you view ANY pilot's
cockpit within a certain range of where you were when you were
recording. Next time you get killed, note the name of the pilot
that killed you. Then when you review the film, ride along in
his plane and see what tactics he used to get on your six.
If you find a friend in here that is great at the game, ask
him if you can ride along with him . If you can, and he's in a fighter, look his name up in the "Join" section of the game,
click on his name, and when he accepts you..you are an observer
in his plane. You won;t be able to control anything accept
your own views (left, right, up etc.). this is kinda cool way of
learning too.