I totally agree with your points Fuji, glad I was situationally aware enough to realise contributing to this thread with my perspective would help me learn something. I continue to fly with pilot X because they fly outside of the 'PPL box' and I know somehow it must be good for me. We really are good friends and get on well, even if one of us prefers to fly a heading and the other doesn't.
Regarding WWII fighter aces (there is a point to this), mentioned earlier, the very few really top scoring aces generally achieved it by planning. They never engaged unless they had an advantage. Most of the really high scoring aces 100+ kills, were German, learning their 'trade' early in the war. Attacks were from altitude, always from the sun and hit and run rather than dogfights.
Sure there are plenty of accounts too of simply natural airmen, who beat overwhelming odds using exceptional SA within dog fights, but here we are talking 6 to 12 total kills as opposed to hundreds.
I see an analogy to the debate on SA above. On one hand we have the concept of 'informed, calculated, planned SA'' on the other we have the 'thinking outside of the box or pure instinct type of SA', which is absolutely essential when the first method fails, it's also harder to get experience of as it means moving out of ones own comfort zone. More food for thought.
I was also thinking of the 'traps' involved with SA. Such as the pilot who doesn't question where they are because they 'know', but are in fact mistaken. Common causal factor in CFIT accidents. Clearly poor SA was at fault, but the scary side is it may not even be apparent at the time.
As an addition I think it's worth considering that informed, calculated, planned SA done right, should reduce the incidence or the need of the second type. I feel another one of those flying sayings coming on.
