Acceptable Ping rates?

[Bobb4]

Coming from darkest africa, pings are a huge issue. As Freddie stated we will be getting Seacom soon which should up the ping to Europe and the US.
Back to your question, what is a playable ping.
Between 250 and 450 are easily playable as long as your connection is stable.
Ping spikes are a major issue though.
I play ADW with a ping of between 290 and 390 quiet easily.

The guy with a better ping has an advantage but it is the price you pay.
As long as you are not warping it should be no problem to other players. Ping spikes enhance warping allowing your plane to shoot from one point to another and will irritate the crap out of other players.
Place you could look to play is in Asia... Your pings should be bloody good there?

As for the invisible plane, well my guess is you were on a modded server and you did not have the skins of the plane your enemy was using.
Hope that helps