John Venable, a former F-16C pilot with 3,000 hours of fighter time, and a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation did a survey with 31 F-35A pilots and found that they had a high degree of confidence in the fighter.
In fact, all of them would choose the F-35A over their former fighters if they were to engage in a beyond-visual-range fight.
Hit the link below for the full report.