your 12:00 position on the hat should be look front, because you can set an over nose view with the arrows and F10, permitting you to see better over the nose of the plane, at the cost of seeing the gunsight. This is not a detail, its very important if you want to shoot anyone lower than you.
My look up modifier is on my throttle as I'm used to use the left hand for look up from the times I didn't have a throttle. My pinky was toggle zoom when I had a fighterstick, but that's not very important
nrshida came up with a crazy method of training your SA, but it looks like working....go to the DA, up at the lake in your plane of choice, and unload the guns on the runway. Roll, go to the center of the lake and try to survive the longest you can without worrying about shooting just yet.
If you are not satisfied with your shooting go offline, and change your ammo multiplier in the arena settings to 10. Then roll and shoot planes for at least 30mins for a few days. The drones may only circle over the base, but you can add difficulty yourself by getting high over the field and simulate a picking situation where you come at high angle/speed.