Q:

How can I get easy Plane kills in Battlefield 3?

I am now level 10 on battlefield 3, but have yet to get any plane points. I can fly fine,
but without the first unlock - Flares. The first time someone locks missiles on to me I'm a deadman flying.
I've machine gunned tanks, planes, but been very unsuccessful, they dont die.
I even flew into another plane: It counted as a kill for me! Despite this I am currently on 10/300 to unlocking flares. And flares still only keep me alive longer, allowing me to machine-gun more. It would be nice if I could get some heat seekers myself.
Currently I take off, and someone else will either shoot me down before I leave the runway, or take me out in the air. Sometimes someone will lock on from ground, and down I go. I have no chance of killing something, as it takes too long.
How can I rack up the 3-5 kills I need to unlock flares so that I can live a bit longer?

A:

Unfortunately there really is no guaranteed way to do this. BF3 has been out for some time so there are a lot of players who are ridiculous in those jets. There are a few things I could suggest though:

Play a map with multiple aircrafts: Any map that has more than one plane, and more preferably multiple helicopters will be a good place to start. Take down a helicopter and you can score some nice points for a double kill (maybe more) and vehicle destruction. Having multiple aircraft in the sky also creates more distraction for everyone involved giving you a decent chance to fly under the radar (literaly).
Play with some friends: Having a good squadmate or two can really turn the airfield in your favor. Spotting jets and helicopters makes a massive difference early in the game for jet pilots. Until you have the radar on your jet you are basically flying blind, and it is VERY tough to spot those choppers until it is too late. Also teammates can assist getting jets OFF of your tail with a little SOFLAM and Javeline action.
Play conservativly: Once you get that jet, don't go losing it. Once you die in the jet the chances of you getting it back in that same game are slim to none (depending on the fullness of the game and the number of jet hogs there are) Don't fly near the enemy AA weaponry and try to stay low to avoid locks (since you can't do anything once you're locked)
Don't rule out ground units: If your team is spotting, look for the humvees and DPV's. In a jet these are cake to take out and can sometimes provide 2+ kills and vehicle destroy.

All in all getting past those flares is the hardest part, it only gets easier from there. Score yourself a few good helicopter kills and you could be looking at the unlock in one or two sweeps.

A:

There are a lot of 'flight school' or 'flying practice' servers out there, usually with player size around 4 people. You can join one of these, fly a plane around for practice, and dogfight with 1 or 2 other people, without worrying about ground or anti-air. You'll get the 3 kills you need to unlock flares in no time, and it's also just nice in general to be able to get the hang of flying without all the attention you attract from anti-air in a normal game.
To find these servers, just search by keyword 'flying' or 'flight' in your server filter.

