My experience is that it's a bit more than that, I would say that the higher skill levels are harder to sneak up on and they turn from defensive to aggressive behaviour more readily. Try sneaking up on three 0 skill fighters from behind and below - you can probably get a couple of them before they break away. At higher skill levels, they might not see you and you might get one but while you are looking for the second one that broke away, the third will be in a position to take shots at you.
This has aroused my curiosity, as I have been flying against aces and veterans for years (I had a stupid mania of frontal attacks and this was a way to cure me), I have already forgotten a bit about rookie behaviour, then, what I have said refers to many years ago (maybe in novice times my perception of aces and rookies was different).
I have now done some tests to compare aces and rookies in mentioned by you situation. I have done it only in QMB (Smolensk map, alt. 2000m, meteo: clair, position +, situation: disavantage, diff. 500m, Tempest vs. 3 Dora).
In UP 3.0, UP 3.3 and DBW 1.71 the reaction of aces and rookies is identical: at the start of the mission they immediately start manoeuvres (dist.+-1600m, they have already seen you when you pressed start button
). In HSFX 7 and MA 5.30 it is true that you can reach the shooting distance flying behind rookies, instead aces locate you immediately.
In my habitual missions I don't remember being in a position to surprise any aircraft from behind and from low (as I said, I fly against aces and veterans - which does not mean that I am good
), I have always encountered the wonderful ability of AI to see through the fuselage, they always start evasive manoeuvres before I reach the firing distance (+-700m or before)
. The only times where I have been able to surprise from behind without any problems, was flying against other players in SEOW.
I haven't compared behaviour in the combat itself, but as I unfortunately have too much time I'll try it...