with arcade everyone knows where each other is because of the red arrow etc etc etc (the usual),
but with sim its all level.
Chances are if you've lsot him, then he's lost you!! its a case of who can check map first, get a rough idea of what direction the scan the horizon that way, while at the same time "listening" for those all important bullets. If you can hear bullets that are not yours, then chances are your getting shot at so stop going for your target and get that guy of your 6
Its better to have 1 kill and no deaths than 10 kills and 11 deaths.
A good all round game mode to help is CTA, this way you can pretty much do everything from dogfighting to ground attack. Its a good learning ground.
Just watch out for tudorp, he's bloody sneaky!! he likes to land on the runway and unorthodox way