It's not the plane that matters its the pilot.
Sometimes you have no or limited choice
A good pilot can make the most of a plane. A bad pilot can make best plane look useless.
Seriously 90% of your questions are answered in In Persuit, in the download folder I mentioned before or download from here
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/lento_ohjeet/inpursuit/inpursuit.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwif4ryw5c7fAhWfThUIHQSSBE4QFjAJegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw1SoicuTRqjZ_d4jgZ7fzdU
Then you need to practice as Sid said