I just thought I'd throw out a couple of observations that I think might help some of the new players as they get exposed to AH for the first little while.
1) Don't look at your score online. Score is not the biggest thing to worry about and as you develop you skills your score will improve. Remember how many people play AH and how many hours of stick time (100's and 1000's) many of them have. As you get more experience, your score will improve. If you must look at your score then look for improvements, not "you are 588 out of 1000 total players" type stuff. Look for "hmm my gunnery was 3% last week but now I'm up to 5%".
2) Situational Awareness. Spend the time early (one of the first things to do) to work out your views both to custom set them and to get a feel for switching between them as quickly and smoothly as possible. Not knowing where your enemy is is certain death. The custom views might be pretty close to working well for you, or they could be a long way away. Take off in the training arena and start by trying to track ground targets while manoeuvring. You should be able to know where they are going to be in your views so they should be easy to track. Moving targets are harder but the concepts are the same.
3) Gunnery. You can't kill fighters out beyond D500, normally. Sure, it can happen and does, but wait until you are 500 or closer before you open fire. Be patient, the really good players won't fire until 250 when they see the whites of your eyes. Even the best players who take a week off from AH find their gunnery out of wack when they come back and it affects their fighting. Practice and get a feel for your guns. Again, go offline, turn off the friendly object protect flag, and start shooting at ground structures. Watch the hits. Try firing one set of guns, then the other (primary and secondary), notice the differences. Early players often have hit %'s in the 2's and 3's. Good players are in the 7's and 8's, snipers are in the 10%+ range.
4) Pick a plane and stick with it a while. Nothing is wrong with getting a taste for every plane in the set, but if you want to wring that last 20% of performance out of a plane you have to get yourself dialed into the strengths/weaknesses. There is no magical plane that will make a poor pilot great. Some can help you in different ways, but they usually come at a price. In the end, many pilots settle on a max of 3 or 4 total planes that they fly depending on situation. They may fly lots of planes but they know how the get 95% out of those 3 or 4 planes and only 75% out of the others. Many fights are decided by getting that last 5% of performance out of a plane.
5) Remember what plane you are flying and fly to its' strengths. Trying to do something against your planes strengths will get you killed. Trying to out-turn a Zero in a 190A8 down low and slow, for example, is a bad place to be. Ask around or look up what style of fighting each plane was good at and try them out in the training arena. Nothing like showing up at a gun fight with a knife. Same principle here.
6) Tune your radio and ask appropriate questions. If you come into the main arena and ask on channel 1 "how do I start my engine" you probably won't get a nice answer. Work out the basics in the training arena before you come into the big dance. Know not to display on channel 1 "so where is the attack taking off for to capture 14". Call people's 6 to warn them of danger. One good 6 call will win you a lot of respect, result in people caring to call your 6 for you, and usually win you a lot of help when you need it most.
7) Find someone in the training arena to help you out on some basic manoeuvres. Make sure you can take off and land. Have some basic manoeuvres down pat (loops, rolls, recovering from spins) before you go to the main arena. The Training Corps is great and will work with anyone who asks. I'm not a trainer myself but I've helped lots of people in the TA work on things.
8) Evaluate each battle one at a time. Video each one as you go and then take a look at what you did wrong if you lose, what you did right if you win. Learn from your mistakes and look to improve. Even a loss if 5 vs 1 against is a good learning experience. Did you actually see the guy who shot you and know where he was? How many attacks did you avoid before you got shot down. Don't be hard on yourself though, lots of factors can influence a battle.
9) Don't take off into a vulch situation constantly where you are just getting shot down over and over. It's frustrating and there isn't usually a good reason for it. Try to find an area where you can take off, climb to a reasonable altitude, pick up some speed, and meet 1 or 2 people at a time, not 10 on 1 against.
10) Try and always keep in mind where friendly help is. You may start out at the top of the pack but sooner or later you'll find yourself at the bottom. Know where you can turn for help.
11) Know when you turn defensive and offensive. Many people just fly, but the difference between trying to chase someone and being chased is huge. Know how to fly under both conditions. It may sound repetitive but practice in the TA to be on the defensive/offensive. They are different skills and take different tactics.
12) Set up your opponent when you have a chance. Pick the situation for the battle and don't always just charge in to try and get one more kill. Chances are if you do that it will be your last kill before someone gets you. If you are higher than the opponent then you can pick your time to pounce or decide to break off and look for another target. Don't dive into 5 or 6 enemies when you are all alone unless you want to see how many hits your plane can take before the wings fall off. Nothing really says you have to dive in without being ready though it can be appreciated if you are trying to help someone out.
13) Practice all the elements of AH so you have a basic knowledge of each and don't be afraid to ask questions about them. Learning to gun in a tank, good bombing techniques, how to fly a goon and drop troops properly, all are skills that are good to have. Volunteering to be the goon pilot and then screwing up the drop because you didn't know how to do it won't win you many friends. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a bomber fly in at 4K alt, right into the Ack and die; a goonie pilot who drop his troops 10 feet off the ground at 200mph, killing them all; a bomber pilot who sprinkles a field with 1000lb bombs just hoping to hit something. Don't accept a role that you haven't done a couple of times and be honest about it. Everyone has screwed up a goonie drop before, I sure have, but 99 time in a 100 I will put those troops right on the field.
I couldn't end with 13 tips, that would be bad omen, so I had to add #14.
14) Enjoy yourself. You can get killed 50 times in a row yet make 3 good moves, nail someone with a nice shot, and feel good about the evening. Even the best players get streaks of good and bad happening, so don't worry if you get shot down a couple of times. If you're not getting shot down, you aren't close enough to the enemy to shoot anyone down either. You're not going to be the Red Baron overnight, it'll take time, and everyone gets to know the look of the underside of their parachute... I sure do (acme parachute and bed sheet company... no warranty expressed or implied).
Soda
The Wrecking Crew
