Ok, lets break this down...
First, you are making a BnZ pass at 350 on the bottom? Sounds close, but maybe a bit slow. I generally will make my pass, use a 3G pull to verticle, and then zoom and pull over the top when I get down to 150 MPH or so. (In the hawg, you'll have to do it a bit faster in the Pony I think.) Once I get below 200 MPH or so, I will hear the stall horn, but just ride the edge of it and let gravity help pull you over the top. One notch of flap below 180 Mph or so will help you keep control over the top. If you have judged the E situation correctly, you should be back over the target and he should not have enough E to get his nose pointed at you in guns range. Setup for another run, sometimes you can swoop right back down if he is pointed away from you, but you may have to stabilize and watch a bit for the right moment, or cuise around to his rear 1/4 for another pass.
Second... you talk about an HO situation. If you are starting your guns pass too far away the bogey will have time to get his nose pointed at you. This means you have to start your run with less horizontal separation position, IE: closer to directly overhead. You don't want to be directly overhead most times, as you won't have enough room to get a good solution, so you have to practice to get the right ammount of horizontal separation for the pass. Now once you execute the first pass, you don't necessarily want to pull right back down and dive into his HO. If you have managed this right he does not have the E to get up to you, so simply don't go down there for the HO, stay high. If you dive back down to him, you make it easy. Stay up there and fly to his six and setup again before you go near him. If he tries to press a shot by climbing to you, he will get very slow or stall at the top trying to reach you, and you can then roll over and kill him. This is pretty much a rope-a-dope. A smart bogey will point at you as much as he can, but keep his speed up to be able to manuever to evade. Versus a good climbing aircraft, you may only have a few passes before your Energy advantage is too low to get up out of guns range, and at that point you will need to end the next pass with a diving 0G extension toward home. Always know where home is and have your egress heading planned so you can bug out in the right direction. After you get away you can either climb and go hunting again, or rtb.
Now your third problem was getting nailed by a higher bogey at the top of your zoom climb when you are slow. This is a Situational Awareness, or SA problem. In an E fighter, you need to know you are the one with the most E before you start an attack. The guy you are attacking needs to be the one with the second highest amount of E (after yours). It is difficult, but you need to know where the enemy is launching from and at what alt they tend to appear. If you are BnZing a low contact at 5k and there are 20 enemy planes flying from a 5k field 1/2 a sector away, you will have higher bogies VERY soon. In this case make a pass or two and get out. If you are working a bogey and a higher contact comes in, RUN. This is not an option for an E fighter. Check your map often and keep an eye out for dots before and after you start your attack runs. If you see a high dot and don't know if it's friend or foe, abort the attack. Either fly toward the dot to identify it if it's co-E or lower, or if it's higher and likely a bad guy, go the other way and climb. You are flying a Boom 'N Zoom sortie, so higher bandits = death.
It's really tough to avoid having higher bandits come into the fight sometimes. That is what gets me killed almost every time. The only thing you can do is be disciplined and make sure you don't engage until you have the advantage. Even then, you need to be wary of new threats and bug out as soon as you see them. Don't get greedy or you will die. After every kill egress toward friendlies and climb until back at a safe engagement altitude before looking for the next fight.
Then again, sometimes I'd rather go down in a blaze of glory fighting 5 guys than run away and rtb.
If you don't worry much about score then fill your boots, but if you want to live and rtb, the rules above should be followed as best you can.
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Lephturn
The Flying Pigs
