Ok, well personally I have to quite strongly disagree with losttwo's reassembly recommendations. Instead I'd go with the following reassemblies:
Ultimate Collimator Sight (400 calibration)
+10% Chance of causing fire I would reassemble. Replace with Accuracy when firing at moving targets: +5%
+5% Pilot's Resistance to injuries
+3% Accuracy of forward-firing offensive armament
Ultimate Uprated Engine (400 calibration)
+10% Resistance to fire I would reassemble. Replace with Engine cooldown rate: +5%
+1% Acceleration without boost activated
+1% Cruise speed
Ultimate Engine Boost Mixture Control (400 calibration)
+10% Engine cooldown rate
+5% Engine cooldown rate
+1% Acceleration without boost activated I would reassemble. Replace with Boost availability: +5%
Ultimate Reinforced Bolt Carriers (400 calibration) I would replace entirely with Gas-Operated Action
+10% Cooldown rate of forward-firing offensive armament
+5% Cooldown rate of forward-firing offensive armament
+2% Rate of fire of forward-firing offensive armament
First Aid Dressing Package I would replace with Fire Extinguisher
Exhaust Bleed Inerting System I would replace with Control Surface Trim
Improved Mixture Control
Bottle for Manual Engine Restart
Universal Ammunition
My rationale is that I like to emphasize Boost Uptime on my planes since I use boost very aggressively. Having that bit of extra boost available when I need it I feel is more valuable than the overall increases to cruise which I feel the P-38F already has in spades. I would also remove the Inerting and the reduction in fire risk penalty for a fire extinguisher to put out any fires as and when they spring up. Pilot injuries are irritating but not fatal. However, you DO take a speed penalty when your control surfaces are crit so being able to fix that control surface as you're running away is more valuable to me than the reduced fire chance which on a P-38F, even with the penalties from Uprated Engine, is not very high.
For the guns, its a bit of a wash. I don't really mind the +10% fire chance and you can choose to swap out accuracy or pilot resistance instead but you MUST get yourself the +5% against moving targets. What's the difference? Accuracy just means a reduction in dispersion - your shots spray less which can be a good thing OR a bad thing depending on the plane and your aim (.50 cal have massive dispersion). Accuracy against moving targets, however, is straight up autoaim. It increases the effective autoaim cone where your shots will "guide" into your target thereby considerably increasing your overall DPS.
I don't really like Reinforced Bolt Carriers on most planes. You're better off with Gas Operated Action. While the whole "shoot at people longer" might sound like a better way of landing more shots, the inverse is true - throwing more lead out faster with the bonuses from GOA means you're better able to take advantage of the small firing windows you get as you boom through. This is especially true for the P-38s whose .50 cal are really short ranged and whose 37mm works best at mid-range shots. You don't have a huge firing window so you might as well throw as much lead through it as possible. Also faster firing autocannon mean that people are less likely to fly between your shots as you deflect them. With GoA, you'll want to take Cooldown rate of forward-firing offensive armament: +10%, Cooldown rate of forward-firing offensive armament: +5% and Burst length of forward-firing offensive armament: +5%, though that last one you can swap for even higher RoF.
For pilot skills:
Aerodynamic Expert is an absolute must for any plane with Ultimate Equipment. This skill is still bugged and gives you +100% to your equipment bonuses, not +40%. It basically doubles the effectiveness of all your equipment relating to speed and maneuverability. I don't think I need to explain how insane that can be with fully calibrated ultimate speed/maneuverability gear.
Marksman I and Marksman II should be your second and again this boils down to maximizing your firing window and the additional +5% autoaim coefficient you get from Marksman II
I am going with Engine Guru I and II for your 9th and 12th Skill Points. They massively improve your planes' acceleration which just makes running away that much easier plus the +5% increase in top speed from EG II will dramatically increase your map presence.
I am going out on a limb and suggesting Cruise Flight for your 14th Skill Point (if you ever get there). Even More speed on top of a buff in Spotting range means even more map control. You can see more of whats going on yourself and you can react to it.
For your 15th point (ha ha). You could just toss it into Eagle Eyed so that no evil can escape your sight. By this point you should already be so bloody good that even landing a hit on your Lightning would be nigh impossible for your helpless prey as you ruthlessly swoop in like an omnipresent messenger of death to execute them.
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