Just keep them as armamanet till 89; this way you can use them as HH gunners till unlocking something with a great AA battery (or even then continue with HHs...)
I classed mine at 75ish, now BVE they are pretty good. Depends on the person, some class way past.
Honestly, there is no reason to class before 89/yamato, unless you get the PBB.
For CV:
Remember, you are limited to 8 pilots. I run my cv 4fp/4db and it works pretty good. I also have 4 low level dbs if i ever want to just mess around...
It depends on what you want to do. 5/3 good for fighter cover, people do use 8/0 for fighter whore. I use 4/4 because i can just do both when the need arises.
I use 4/4 + elite fighter seaman + IJN AA on my CV.
Try getting a +12 ftr for your seaman, if he has +12 ftr and some ++ restore or repair, even better, because it is very hard hitting 900 SD with CV. My cv crew is all lvl~100 and i dont have 900.