Def drive in 3rd and i usually stay zoomed out pretty far to dodge avrils and such. For grabbing the flag to get the feel focus on just to the outside of the flag base and run straight over that point till you get used to it. After doing that for a while you will get used to where to land the rider to get the flag and can focus on whats around. To pickup weapons at lockers pop up and land on them or just slow down and run over the locker. Shields and such have to be bounced on but first practice with the lockers since they are a little easier. To hit the shields start with just stopping straight over them jumping and stomping on them. Then go back a lil bit and try to land and stop on the shield. When get used to that try just stomping on the shield on the fly. A great way to practice this is actually trying to stomp teamates for a teamkill
. Once you get good at this practice just making a U with the turn being the flag since its easiest to just quickly swoop in and out...like papa
As far as just overall driving. fly around some on the various maps to get a feel for where everything is. To get through runs quick i turn before i get to a turn and press sideways also to kind of 'drift' through turns a good map to practice turning quickly on is action city just driving through all the buildings.
When trying to smash a person head on like say a person spamming on the flag with shock balls. treat them as a shield you are trying to pick up. as you approach jump above them. they will either keep spamming straight ahead or follow you and spam upwards, neither should work if you land squarely on them, assuming they didnt spam straight up.
To avoid avrils its best to just get behind something to take the lock off but if out in the open you need to change direction as quicly as possible which is by stomping on the ground, but just jumping and stomping wont be enough. You hav to jump and let off acceleration then when avril gets close, if timed well at the peak of the jump, press reverse to decelerate and stomp on the ground. If timed well the avril should miss.
Avoiding raptors is much easier just move a little to the side when it gets or jump then stomp without having to decelerate.
When getting the flag its best to just get a quick clean swoop in and out but that usually doesnt happen. Usually you get caught by a good shock rifle rather than trying to push through either jump let him push you up a with two shots then stomp down. that should be fast enough to throw off his aim, or reverse and use the shocks as an extra boost to go out the other direction and after a couple shots turn to throw off his aim that way. If the flag is up against the wall slam straight into the flag and wall then when you hit the wall jump and press reverse to kind of slingshot yourself back the other way. This should get you moving fast enough to not get to caught up in shock shots. The more difficult part here though is turning in mid air since you want to maintain the same speed. You have to gradually turn the vehicle while simultaneously rotating the acceleration from backwards to sideways to forward. This is worth practicing since it will also help with absorbing shock shots by accelerating with the shots so they dont slow you down.
Taking down a tank is easiest by just popping up from behind a ridge and shootin until you fall back behind it. If the tank is in an open area you have to fly around the tank shooting it. This is also where learning to turn in and change the throttle direction in midair at the same time is helpful. Eventually the tanks gun will catch up to you here you want to try and bait it in to shooting and when it does jumping so you are in the air when it shoots. the shot may knock the rider off but you should still be alive to at least finish off the tank before you go get another rider. Which i guess is another point. Give up easily, if you lose the rider only stay long enough to maybe take down the tank or bender but get out before you die so you can quickly get a new rider for a fresh attack. this is also a point for riders. if you get knocked off dont bother to grab the flag if you hav no chance of getting out since that will just give them a chance for the tank to respawn and reset d until flag auto returns.
If you are just trying to hope the tank misses which is actually very easy if tank is not right on top of the flag. Try heading towards flag with some altitude then letting go of the accelerator just before the flag, switch to brake and slamming down so you come to almost a dead stop just before the flag. Since most tank people are so focused on the flag they try to time shot so they hit you on or jut after the flag. If this works the tank will shoot ahead of you thinking you were just swooping through. Then grab the flag after the shot and immediately jump as you fly out so the tank cant hit the ground below you to knock the rider off.
Avoiding bender shots is best by changing your altitude when you hit the flag. The turret will probably follow you and shoot when you hit the flag to throw off him tracking you stomp on the flag so hopefully his shot will miss above you. Also turn sideways as you hit the flag since if trained on the rider hitting the flag, the shot may miss him and if not you can shield the rider and take the shot so he may survive to run for it.
And i guess also just play around on the levels to find the best ways in and out and others if your run breaks down and you get pushed in an odd direction. Also pay attention to where little ridges are since the best way to avoid shots is to change altitude as much as possible by jumping off the ridges.
umm....ummmm....cant think of anything else to ramble on about....hope this helps or at least gave you a way to kill a few minutes
.....also ride with people who drive alot to learn the best ways to go and little tendencies.
I messed around with it for a couple maps last night, but I just feel like a monkey fuckin a football...can't get the hang of it. Is it better to fly in 3rd or 1st person? If I'm flyin around by myself, it seems easier to use 1st person. But with a rider...how do ya line up for flag grabs or weapon locker/item pickups in first person? Whats the procedure for picking up weapon lockers and items? It doesn't work like it does with the flag... flyin over the top of a weapon locker just "squatting" the manta down doesn't work. Do ya have to "bounce" down on it? I'm havin a hard time with this manta stuff....I've always stayed away from them cause I absolutely HATE getting run over by them. So I just spent time getting good at takin'em out. Which I've gotten pretty good at. 
But driving them is a different story.... 
That's a lot to take in at once (hmmm... sounds like something papa would say). Nonetheless, a treasure chest full of information. Thanks for sharing Vapor.
