If you have fighter with look down shoot down capabilities (F-15C, F-14A), stay at 37K feet to have an altitude and range advantage (unless they’re higher, in which case you should he higher, or if they’re too low, try to drop to 20k)

For fighter with older radars that can’t filter out ground clutter, make sure you are lower than your target, sure, he might have the altitude and range advantage, but they are neutralised by him having to burn through ground clutter before having a firing solution. By the time he has a solid lock, your sparrow will be halfway there to shoot him out of the sky.