To become a great pilot you need the best training, equipment, crews and above all, experience and luck. And the more experience you have, the less luck you will need. When all else is equal, as is so easily the case, experience will be the deciding factor in combat.
There is, however only one way to gain experience, and that is through the willingness to lose ships. Thus it can be said that the pilot who is most willing to lose ships, has the potential to become better than those who would rather not risk and not lose.
Experience essentially gives a pilot knowledge, knowledge of space, tactics and most importantly, experience is the only way for a pilot to understand his own capabilities and limitations in any given ship. To truly know, mere simulations are simply inadequate.
Through gaining this knowledge, you will also learn to understand the capabilities of other ships, and these together will allow you to achieve the ideal as expressed in the old adage.
If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperilled in every single battle. – Sun Tzu
