You're a new pilot, or just new to this game?
If you're a new pilot, not one familiar with flying planes in general, the Spit 9 is the best all-around starter plane.
For a new pilot, all that techno-stuff about roll rates and acceleration doesn't make much sense yet.
What you need is a plane that goes up when you pull the stick back, rolls when you move the stick to the left or right, and speeds up and slows down with corresponding movements of the throttle.
That's the Spit 9 (Spitfire IX).
You don't have to think about throttle position much (just go right to wide-open).
You don't have to think about flaps and other things that hang off the plane.
You just point-and-shoot.
The straightforward handling characteristics will help you gain a little bit of "air sense" and you'll be able to spend more time looking outside the plane, rather than at the instrument panel.
Next piece of advice is to go into the off-line practice area and learn to take off and land. Once you get the hang of taking off and landing in a plane that models real flight characteristics, you'll feel a lot better about actually shooting at things. Also, landing and taking off a lot of times gets you used to how fast your plane climbs, how fast it has to go before you can turn well, how to make it slow down when descending, just good all-around handling of the plane. For example, not overshooting an enemy plane you're closing on from behind...well, that's kinda like slowing down to land...so you need to learn to land first. Trying to climb up to where the fight is...well, you have to take off and climb out to do that. Trying to line up on the runway at slow speed, well that's the first step to a slow turning dogfight.
Second piece of advice...get help setting up the views, the gun convergence, etc. Go to the Training Arena for that. And read more posts. That is essential, as others have already pointed out quite well.
Last piece of advice at this early stage, go into the offline practice every time you get on the game and shoot down all four of the drone planes that are circling the field. Maybe do it twice once they've respawned. It is good practice to get you oriented to pointing the plane in the right place, learning what your tracers are telling you, how much damage your bullets do and figuring out what it takes to actually shoot down one of the planes, how long your ammo lasts, etc. etc. It gets you prepped for the arenas where you are flying against real people.
Most importantly, HAVE FUN! It's a GAME! (You're a TOY!)
