Just use subs and you don't have to worry about anything.

only bad thing about my scout is he likes to dogfight he's a 11/11 on aircraft and
fighter, and he's actually gone after and shot torp bombers down(he's only level 54) i
personally like the Duck and the Dauntless i've used both and prefer the dauntless cause
you can see farther

EDIT: @ Mali yes use the higher scout

Nothing can replace the joy of seeing your scout shoot down some poor sap's low-level fighter.

Use high level scouts.

It depends. If you want to save weight, the only real place you can put it to use is extra
bulge, since 300 tons isn't enough to increase your base speed enough unless you
skeletonize the rest of your crew and ride the hairy line. As for them being fighter
fodder, it is true that that doesn't matter, since it all depends on you maneuvering your
scout to avoid fighters. But from my experience, maxing out your crew does let them
become partially AAW-immune somewhat below the default height, which is helpful if
you have to blow past a line of AA ships to scout something.

All in all, if you think the extra 2-7 bulge will help you against a sub, then by all means
go ahead and strip crew off your scout pilot. But if you have nothing better to do with
that weight, then increasing your scout's ability to withstand AAW to a certain degree
can help depending on how you use your scout.

I have a question closely enough tied to this that I don't feel too bad asking it here:

Assuming he's at least high enough to operate whichever aircraft you've selected, is there
any benefit to using a high-level rookie pilot than one barely high enough to use the plane?

I mean, they're ALL fighter-food, and to the best of my knowledge they NEVER learn not to
charge a passing FP patrol. Sure, there's allgedly "AA immunity" at high level, but does
it justify the added weight?

they both have their strengths and weaknesses. I personally use more scouts
because CV drivers seem to pick my scouts out first... :P

I agree that US lacks planespace but seriously... if the enemy knows what to do they will
shoot down any scout... no matter if you carry 3 or 5.... and if they do not know what to
do... 3 are enough... I either lost all or only 1 or 2 scouts in most battles... no
matter how many I carried... so I use Tier4 for the better sight range...

When the scouts were first adjusted so the choice between the T3 and T4 scouts was less of
a no-brainer I opted to use T3 so I could spam them out more. The NY server was still
noobish and this worked out better at the time.

However now games have become exceptionally bi-polar. One game I'll have 3 different CVs
trying to land their FPs on my limited BB deckspace. The next game I'll have a lvl120 PCV
on my side slapping planes out of the sky like a pimp come to collect. In the former
situation, the scout won't last more than a second off the ramp, thus I don't bother
launching it and focus on blindshotting. In the latter my scout is the cherry on the
icing that lets my CV go eat more planes and aside from MG AA CL's there's no real risk.

Thus I went back to using T4's since requiring an extra scout just meant I was being a
doorknob.

Except that it's not (;), it's (,) that lowers your plane.

Dont forget the semi colon (;) Use that to lower your scouts in order to avoid AA. It
blows my mind how many people dont know how or bother to do this. nothing makes me happier
when I'm in an AA boat then when a BB5 starts telling others to scout for him because I
shot down all of his scouts already (F2 noobs) :P

:edit: oops caught me Rehor :P it is indeed (,)