Hey 4fox thought that was you. We actually fought a few time in the da awhile back, and the Ma once or twice.
I would recommend flying some of the mid early war planes like the p40. One reason is they are harder to fly against late war birds and much more attention has to be paid to E states and acm's. Once you learn some Acm's in those the spits will be easy street.
A couple of reasons not to fly the hurri spits and zero early on is, they will handicap you from learned better acm and fine tuning your observations skills. The zero for example turns so well most never have to learn the barrel roll with it, or how to displace your vector to the 90 degrees. Ya just flat turn everything.
Anyway thats my take on it.
