Hints:

Fly The Training Mission
In training no one shoots at you, and you get the opportunity to attack a variety of targets. Its a good chance to hone your weapons skills. You can also create a custom loadout and test the effectiveness of different weapons in a safe environment.

Learn Your Weapons
Different weapons have different advantages. If allyou ever use are Mavericks and Sidewinders, youll be missing half of the fun.

Stay Low
SAM radar cant pick you up through hills or mountains. The lower you fly, the closer they must be to detect you and the shorter time they have to fire.

Get Ready
When making an attack on a target, select your ordnance inadvance; you may not have time when the fur is flying. Use your Avenger for those quick shots in order to avoid having to change selected weapons.

Sometimes, Slow Is Good
Slowing down over a target may seem like asking for trouble, but sometimes going a bit slower may let you hit all of your targets in one pass and avoid the need to fly back over the target, actually lowering the time you spend in the enemys sights.

Dont Be Ashamed To Run
Helicopters are more maneuverable than you, but slower. Dashing away can sometimes allow you to reposition and bringSidewinders to bear without getting blown out of the sky.