Regarding pilots' skills, here is a quick list of possible ones:
+ Maneuver/Dogfight - how good is the pilot to place his aircraft in good position when pursuing an enemy
+ Guided Weapons - determines how the pilot handles weapons such as missiles, modifying precision (hit ratio), range and rate of fire.
+ Unguided Weapons - same thing, for guns
+ Fuel Management - the pilot may know how to optimize his aircraft range
+ Speed - in the same fashion, he may know how to get the best out of his aircraft's propulsion system
When a pilot is forced to eject, the player could be given a choice:
a - let him handle the situation and hope he'll be able to come back.
or
b - go and get him.
If the player choses (a), the program checks if the downed pilot is in friendly or unfriendly territory. If he is in friendly territory, he
will get back to his base, but after xx days, depending on distance to his home base. If he is in un-friendly territory, he has y% chance of coming back, depending on the level of "unfriendliness" of the region towards Phalanx.
If the player choses (b), the program checks for the region friendliness. In friendly territory, success should be automatic. In enemy territory, a mission is generated, where
human opponents should try to capture/kill the pilot or secure the crashed aircraft. Number and level of the enemies could depend on the level of "unfriendliness" of the region.
The CSAR mission could happen this way: the enemy's objective is to (in order of priority) capture the pilot alive, seize as much of the crashed aircraft as possible or kill the pilot. On the other hand Phalanx objectives are: save the pilot, keep the enemy from getting sensible technology, either by blowing the wreck or by blowing the enemy
The mission could then have different outcomes, like, you managed to destroy the wreck, but lost a valuable pilot. Or, you managed to save your pilot, but enemy forces were pressing you so hard you couldn't get to blow the wreck.
Note that this principle may be applied to crashed UFOs, with an alien rescue mission that can get in your way if you do not act quickly enough.
Brainstorming
Malick