Few flying questions for you experts.

I'll help you out tomorrow when I'm online but, maybe some other guys can get you help today.

1. AA - Render distance is an issue. Vehicles render much further out than infantry (on the order of 700m for vehicles and 300m for maxes and infantry). They will always see you before you see them. There are a few ways to handle this. First off, don't fly blind into an area. Do a bit of scouting first if you don't know what is down there. Skirting the edge of the area will usually draw AA fire while allowing you a chance to escape. Experience will help you judge if it is worth a run at that point - light fire can be soaked or avoided. Heavy fire is a different issue.

Avoiding AA - you typically have a few options. Ground-based AA is limited by terrain - putting hills or trees or buildings between you and them will protect you. You'll have to fly low for this which is dangerous, but most prefer this. With a lib, you have the option to go very high and try to stay above some of the AA, but you lose the ability to kill infantry (not really a problem per se). Another is to use low-altitude approaches with a high transverse velocity. If you know where the AA is, you can make passes that are perpendicular to the angle of fire. You avoid coming right at, or flying directly away from enemy AA.

Gear can help. Composite armor will allow you to stay in the enemy fire longer and make more penetrating strikes. Nanite Auto Repair will allow you to circle a little and repair you damage without having to land, letting you stay closer to the target area.

2. Best answer is don't let the reaver on your ass; it sounds obvious and stupid, but it really is the best answer. Take a look at some of the flight school stuff on ACM that I posted; those are all very basic maneuvers which may or may not help you (this game isn't really a flight sim). The fact of the matter is, you let an enemy fighter on your tail, you're probably dead (unless you're real good and he's real bad). In Skywatch we fly in groups and try to cover each other, and we try to get good intel on air space before flying in so we know what to expect. It is much easier to take steps to prevent that reaver from getting on your tail than it is to clear him off once he's there. The next best answer is try to fly in groups, communicate, and cover each other.

3. This will really depend on the situation. Sometimes "dive bombing" is useful, sometimes flying nap of the earth is useful. AA in the area will really dictate how you approach a target. What you are hunting will dictate that as well due to render distances (see above). The best advice is to choose an approach that limits your danger while maximizing your effectiveness - attack from behind, use cover where you can, and don't hover over the target area (especially when libs are working). The 'right' altitude will work itself out.

No kidding...I was really looking forward to the vert thrust nerf. Looks like they reverted that change because PS2 is full of weak-willed panty-wasted crap-pilots.

It's back to Plan B on that - fly in pairs and use the bait and hook to make them pay for flying backwards or in little circles...

Bonus points if you can find a way to hump their corpse until they learn a better way to fly...

reverse maneuver is simply awesome and it's really a shame they want to nerf it. Don't worry coltorl I'm with you!

if anyone has problem with reavers doing reverse maneuver, learning how to shoot ESFs doing it will be critical