its really only cheating if you modify your .ini files to make you unfairly better than others helping someone out isnt cheating... it may be unfair but regardless its not cheating

No, not really cheating, but you will be depriving him of the game. He wont realize the struggle of getting up to the point, and depending on what kind of person he is, he'll either feel good to being helped, or, at the end, he wont really feel like he did anything to get where he is and get bored of the game, its your choice, i suggest you just help him along, when he gets up to your point, then give him your spares.

I say make him do the Single Player Campaign and then give him anything he wants when he comes to M/P

give it to him, if he's stupid he'll just lose them when someone shoots his wings off later