i think your pilot idea and timer idea are stink too
having hte pilot only be able to carry a pistol would suck because if my plane is going down i eject and parachute down and then i wreak some havoc as whatever class i was earlier
and the line idea wouldnt make much sense in a clan game, or what if u didnt want to fly a plane at all would u still be put on that waiting in line thing? you'd just bog it down
turning off friendly fire helps a lot for gameplay because if u beat some one to something they cant just shoot u...
i think a lot of the mess will also clear up as time goes on because most of the people trying to get to the planes have probably just got the game and havent had a chance to fly a plane
when i got into a game for the first time the first thing i wanted to do was to get a plane and kick some peoples asses, it just sounded like the most fun
then after a long while i finally got a plane on the air strip and crashed it on the take off...so back to the fightin for a plane, then once i got my chance at flyin a plane i realized that it wasnt exactly what i wanted to do while i was playing so i stopped fightin for the planes...once everyone gets their chance in a plane the fight sfor the planes will lessen