I never watch the films
I never shoot any plane in the HO position..... unless they open up first. I much rather floing around in the air and fight. Many times when they HO I still never shoot. The best are when merging and you hold fire and so do they. Then you know this is some fella that enjoys the fight and is not just thinking kill kill kill.
If I have someone come in and actually want to fight and I am lucky enough to get the upper hand, I'll pull off and wish them luck on making it back to base.
Now if this post is all a joke about something funny that happened in a film then haha. Pretty amazing what some can do in a TBM BTW.
As for your elite statement..... I'm nowhere near that.... I'm just lucky more often than not.