Close your eyes, Nick. Daydream. Imagine the most beautiful aviation image you've never seen. Make it!

First comes the idea. The technical follows. The technical is just a means for expressing what you envision in your mind. It's how you bring your intangible vision into material existence.
If you are inspired by a vision of an ideal image, you WILL make it! It may not be a PERFECT expression of that vision but that comes with time.
Your vision and your inspiration drive the technical. When you are so jazzed about what you see in your mind's eye that you HAVE to figure out how to make it into an image, your technique will improve. You'll experiment and FIND ways to work it out.