Stan187

Because they spend their time chasing each other over the Aegean and posturing to make sure there are no incrusions, as opposed to actually getting up in the air and practicing skills and combat tactics. The Turks would stop on the Greeks if war broke out, btw.

Themistoklis

And why don't mock dogfights over the Aegean (which, of course, includes "getting up in the air" ) qualify as "practicing skills and combat tactics"? Actually it's the best practice a pilot could get. You should further note they 're additional to their standard training, which is of course NATO level. Just as an example, the Hellenic Air Force regularly conducts 4 vs 4 dissimilar air combat exercises, which I think is rare, even in NATO countries (I don't think the Germans or the French do them).

By "stop on" did you mean "step on", i.e. "beat"? Would you care to explain why you think so?

Ruskiy

Russian Pilots are the most trained and experienced pilots in the world.
The trainings they got in the Soviet Union were so good and violent that they deserve to get the 1st place. Plus they are controlling their aircrafts so good that no one else can't do the same. Indian pilots that are flying Russian aircraft are trained by Russians so they are pretty high in their rank too. Chinese are falling out cause they are asking Russians to come to China and make an airshows to show it to their people and tell how good comies are, they can't really repeat the Russian maneuvers and ability of flying.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...907&q=SU-30MKI

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Jimmy

Russian pilots dont get nearly enough training. They cant afford the flight time. And the maneuvers you see them do in an airshow would equal death in combat.

omon

i say blue angeles are the best pilots.

Stan187

Their mock dogfights, are a waste of time, like I said. Getting more air time just to fly around like a doofus is not training anyone. Who cares about the Germans or the French, they are never claimed to be the best.

Sorry, I didn't mean stop on, type-o. I mean STOMP on. Steamrolled.

Stan187

They can't afford to get up in the air. Maintenance sucks. No fuel. No flight time, and certainly no combat simulations while up in the air. They're too busy selling of plane parts to India to even keep most of their planes airworthy, let alone train in them.

Have they been battle-tested recently?

Themistoklis

But they do appear as voting options here, unlike Greece / Turkey. That's exactly my point.

Care to elaborate?

Ruskiy

Don't know, but the pilots of teh USSR era (which I'm talking about) are the best pilots in Russian Army and one of teh best in the world even whe they don't get enougth trains.

Themistoklis

The youngest pilots of the USSR era, if there 's any of them left, are now close to 40 years old and due to fuel shortages they haven't had any decent training for 15 years, during which btw technology and tactics have changed a lot. I don't doubt the pilots' quality of the USSR Air Force was good, but no air force could be expected to retain a high standard of training when the available fuel allows less than 10 hours a month of flight training per pilot; not to speak of the morale problems created by being underpaid.

YellowFever

That's like saying the USAF pilots are the best pilots in the USAF.....huh?

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Stan187

Just because they are the big NATO and EU nations. Their air forces are good only in a comparative sense with air forces with crappy budgets and equipment. Compared to Israelis, Indians, Americans and such they're coming up a bit short.

Stan187

Seriously man, you need to face reality and get off of the Russian/Soviet superiority shtick. I was born in the same city as the Soviet 98th Airborne Division, but that does NOT make them the best paratroops in the world, know what I mean?

Russian pilots always sucked compared to their Western counterparts. Thats just the way it is. They were trained to follow orders in executing maneuvers. They were employed in large formations of which they were integral working parts, but they had little training to take intiative and think out of the box.

Even in their heyday, the Soviet pilots, even in larger groups of superior airplanes, could do nothing against the Israelis. Look up July 30, 1970 dogfights over Egypt.

They were not the best in the world, even when the didn't train enough like you say. In fact, the main reason that they were bad was because even when they trained, the training didn't really replicate battle situations. Even then, this training did not happen often.

Ruskiy

Actually I'm not talking about USAF or just Russian Airforce, I'm talking about Russian Pilots in the World Airforce Proffecianality race and I think that Soviets (now Russian pilots) are the best.

Ruskiy

Yeah, history of Russian Army always tells that they didn't get enougtht of trainings and funds. But the things that I've saw Russian Pilots done - I never seen anything like this in the world again, they were the best in that kind of flying that I've seen.