[IceFire]

How good is your trim technique and how much effort do you make to keep your planes energy? The AI does cheat... but part of the difference is that people make mistakes, aren't efficient and are often not very smooth fliers. Not right at first anyways. Partly because we're only human we'll always have inefficiencies in the way that we fly whereas the AI is pretty much perfect in some respects.

Most AI cannot out run me whenever I have the faster plane... Bf109E-4 is definitely faster than both Mark I and Mark II Hurricanes. But if they catch me flat footed without energy I'll have to find a way to make it up fast because the AI is not forgiving in that respect.

If you can improve your technique against the AI you'll also find yourself faster than some of your human opponents online. Air races for me really made me think about how I fly. If everyone is flying exactly the same plane and takes off at the same time... why is it that a couple of people pull ahead and continue to open up the distance? They are better pilots and know how to get the best speed out of their plane. So there is room to improve and while the AI does cheat... it shouldn't stop you from pursuing the goal of getting better. It's a subtle art of flying fast... takes time, experience and technique. Just focus on being smooth.