A tip: You unlock air drops by opening them, either from other people's drops stolen or you use the "Surprise me!" drop and hope that it doesn't randomly give you a broken, empty, free drop. It's done that to me sometimes.
Once you've unlocked a good drop, use combat perks that pertain to your weapon of choice. Me, I like to use the axe stamina drain and the less damage taken while holding axes and the sneaky perk.