I'm not really sure there was such a thing as a typical aerial battle. Air combat could take the form of a surprise 'bounce', an attacker diving on an unsuspecting opponent from above (coming out of the sun being preferred), opening fire and speeding away without being engaged; a sprawling battle involving tens or even hundreds of aircraft, often centred around formations of bombers and their escorts, involving brief individual engagements as opportunities presented themselves; a night fighter cautiously stalking their prey, guided by ground controller or on-board radar to get into position. Most of the successful engagements were short; Mike Spick in Allied Fighter Aces writes that "in four out of five air combat victories the victor achieved a position of advantage before the victim became aware that he was under attack". The highest scoring ace of the war, Erich Hartmann, said that 90% of his attacks were surprise attacks.

As you say, the range and endurance of fighters was a limiting factor, particularly for aircraft like the Spitfire and Bf 109 prior to the widespread use of drop tanks; during a sortie of 60 - 90 minutes a Spitfire operating from a British base could fight for 10-20 minutes at most over Dunkirk, a Bf 109 from a French base had a similar time limit over London. If scrambled to intercept an enemy raid a sortie might consist of a quick climb to altitude, engagement of a formation of bombers, and back to base within half an hour; alternatively a convoy patrol could entail an hour and a quarter of relative boredom. By 1944 P-51 Mustangs could fly for five hours or more to Germany and back from British bases but as the strength of the Luftwaffe ebbed encounters became rarer; of 5,000 8th Air Force fighter pilots over half never claimed a single victory, towards the end of the war a Mustang pilot might complete a tour without seeing an enemy aircraft.