Ace combat

During air combat the pilots would have to rely on the maneuverability of their aircraft and strength of the of its production. When being an air combat pilot of world war 1, I thought that these men must have  a strategy to overtake his opponent using his  planes  advantages and even its own disadvantage. Sadly though they knew little in the way of strategy with exceptions of the red baron, and the Lafitte espadrille(French ace squadron). for the average pilot their thoughts i believe would be ones of survival doing what every he can to win (which is sometimes what killed them) on the other hand I think they were afraid of the enemy squadrons and the AA-gun's and were constantly watching for the signs of those to foe's. Even the fear of death would loom in their head's, Ex. while your plane is taking fire the average pilot would begin wonder how much more could it take and wondering if the fire would at least kill him instantly.