i am sure i said that flying smart will lead to success much quicker than learning how to duel, which it will.
It doesn't take all that long to learn how to "fly smart". Its not that hard to recognize a good situation vs. a fubar one, not that hard to recognize an occupied and "cherry" victim. A couple dozen hours flight time at most. Nothing wrong with flying moderately "smart", since I don't really die though, I regularly ignore that little voice in my head that says what I'm doing is a bad idea, and actually come out of "stupid" situations with kills enough to make continued attempts worthwhile.
A duel is by definition a neutral situation. If you can't win from a neutral situation, you can't win in a disadvantaged situation. Similar plane duels, btw, still involve all the elements of the broad range of ACM. One adversaries choice of E-sacrifice on the merge to gain angles leads to the other player applying "E"-tactics quite often, for example. Reversals, can and do happen, any opponent worth their salt will usually test your flying and gunnery even after a six position is gained. Everyone knows that a 109K4 outclimbs a Jug, or that a Hurricane out-turns an Fw-190...but when the planes have identical performance, the skill of detecting and taking advantage of subtle differences in energy and position moment-to-moment is honed. Even when it comes to fighting from an advantage, one needs the practice...if you can't get guns on the opponent in a matched duel, then that Spit one is trying to b'n'z to death in a 190 will probably prove far too elusive. (While we're on the subject though, the TA is really much better than the DA, because successful gun solutions can be made over and over again without having to restart the fight.)
As an aside-"turnard"!?!?!??? All ACM involves "turning" of some form or another. And ACM, as played at the highest level, always become about how slowly you can fly your ride and still remain in control. You are never going to kill anybody that knows what they are doing 1v1 by refusing to make a pass at less than 350+.
Far too often in one's travels, one is going to run into more maneuverable planes one cannot run from. One has the choice to make, are you just going to depend on others, and likely die while yelling for the help that may or may not come in time? Or are you going to learn some skills that actually give you abit of a chance in that situation?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zitjju1zvym/survival.ahf