do you have to be jedi to fly an Eta-2??
no, you just do a quest to get it.
Also the Eta-2 was chosen by the Jedi to use because it is a very small ship, it has no shields, no hyper drive and I doubt it has very many missles, if any. When dog fighting at top speed it requires force like reflexes to handle very well. Which is why the Jedi chose it because it is very manueverable compared to bigger ships and would be hard to hit. Of course in SWG you can have all those modifications...
a friend of mine was flying an eta-2 today, i was in a y-wing and he was running rings around me basically. But of course the eta-2 wouldnt be anythin without the best components...
also another friend took me in his arc-170 and let me be his gunner which was quite fun :P
ya the Imperial Guard Tie, ETA-2 and A-Wing are the 3 top ships for space PvP because they are all small and easy to manuever. In space PvP even getting hit is death, so those are the best because they don't get hit.
I have two Eta-2 one blue and the other red with droids, etc
i still got to get the 'Ace Pilot' before i can fly mine, i got like....3 lol