Best ways to recognize if friendly or enemy aircraft

[Alien]

Just reminded myself of a situation related to recognition. I was flying a campaign (a German one, the Eastern Front, it was late at that time, perhaps eastern Poland) on a Bf 109, had a G-10 I believe. So we were in a dogfight which was spread and I noticed a dot. I approached it and recognized a Yak (probably, I don't remember precisely). I came close, very close (this is why I had 400+ kills in the end of the whole campaign) and fired an extremely short burst, maybe 5-10 rounds (2 MGs and an MK 108 ). The fighter's tail came off and its fuel tank went ablaze. I was maybe 30-20 meters away, looking closely. And then... 2 crosses... On the wings... I just shot down my number 6 (I was number 1). And now, after some 2 years, I still remember that event. The pilot was slightly wounded and bailed out on our side of the front and I made myself a 48 break.
Just wanted to share the tale.

[horseback]

A Number Six? That would be too bad.

Now a Number Three, Five, or Seven would have deserved it. Those guys are always stealing my kills.

cheers

horseback

[Jumoschwanz]

WUD pointed out a lot of common sense things.

You know where your base, the enemies base and the front line is, you know what everyone is trying to accomplish and where they are coming from and where they are going. If you get close enough to actually interact with them, then you will be close enough to tell the aircraft by it's shape.

Look at what the AA is shooting at and who's AA it is, learn the tracers, all common sense.

Of course we are talking about flying Full Real, or hard settings. If you are flying on an easier server with any icons at all then you don't need to be reading this thread.

[F16_Neo]

At dot distance: Location, behaviour.
At LOD range: Shape, color.
Closeup: Markings and features.

Sometimes I still find myself aborting chases when I get to step 3. And yes, FF still happens, even if very rarely nowadays.

Online you should take great care, all pilots don't take FF as lightly as I do I've learned...

[MaxGunz]

When they start shooting at me, they might be enemies.