Sorry for the late reply! Thank you for the comments! I say that's that's an accurate assessment. There is definitely a push your luck mechanic, but I tried to mitigate it by decision spaces of initiative, bonus for combining attacks, and being able to send planes back for repair. Thematically, I did want the back and forth to be a thing - but balancing it out so it wasn't to easy or too hard was a challenge! I totally see being stuck in the middle for too long being annoying. The game should go one way or another at a reasonable point. Thank you for mentioning your experience with that. This gets me thinking about ways to mitigate that.
And bad dice with 4 on the ground and 2 in the sky is not a promising spot to be in! I hope you gave'em hell :-)