GGTharos

Fancy flying does not a fighter make.

Furthermore very few Russian pilots get to fly long enough to retain their skills; USAF pilots get some 200 flight hours a year, sometimes more depending on things, while Russian pilots get 20 if that.

So what eh?

Well, it so happens that Air to Air profficiency is HIGHLY dependant on practice. You don't practice? You suck. This isn't even an opinion, this is a scientifically and emprirically backed up fact. In other words, you can go ahead and ask your Russian pilot buddy if this is true, and if he tells you it isn't, he's lying, or he's not a combat pilot

So what does this fact say about Russian pilots? They suck. Sorry.

YellowFever

Such as?

__________________
...If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!

Stan187

probably flying loopti-loops

Bluesman

As the old saying goes, 'Show me a Soviet fighter pilot with some initiative, and I'll show YOU a Foxbat in Japan.'

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Bluesman

I'll give you this: there are some OUTSTANDING Russian pilots. Every time the International Aerobatics Champoinships are held, Russians always do very well, sometimes sweeping the medals.

And some of their demonstration pilots are masters, and can wring more out of their aircraft than anybody else can from theirs.

HOWEVER, that is not what we're talking about. If you take a name at random from the sked board of any unit and pit him in all flying aspects of his job - and there's a lot more to it than being a stick actuator - with any of his counterparts, lather, rinse, repeat, until you get to the end of comparable units - you will find out that, excluding rookies straight from UPT and the extremely rare on-its-ass unit, US pilots from all services SMOKE everybody else but the Brits and Israelis.

Russians? PLEASE.

Stan187

My dad was telling me not too long ago that this was one of the instances from which he guessed that the Union was gonna break pretty soon. Maybe he was just hoping..

omon

this guy who flew mig 25 to japan is in us now,(i think he is in conecticut) my very good friend's father was his student in flight school.(he is here in us too)

Bluesman

Viktor Belenko, and his book is 'MiG Pilot'.

BMF12

What about the Canadians? They do pretty good in they're old CF-18's I'd say....

zraver

I wonder how many people would change thier votes now that it has been revealed that the COPE excerises were all but staged.

wabpilot

In terms of stick and rudder skills, naval aviators are the best pilots in the world. Among that rather small set, US naval aviators are the best of the best. In terms of safety, US corporate pilots have the lowest total accident rate and lowest fatal accident rate. It is not fair to compare military aviation to civilian aviation as the risks that the military take are greater than those that civilians will tolerate. In terms of training, the combined USN, USAF and US Army training pipelines are without comparison. They routinely turn out 2000 new fixed wing aviators per year. The same system turns out about 2000 new rotar wing aviators per year. That's just new aviators. No system anywhere else comes close to that, either in number or safety. What that does not count is upgrades and recurrent training! All told the US armed forces are probably giving some training to a quarter of all the world's active aviators during the course of one year.

Stan187

How is the number relevant to the being the best?

Jimmy

Too bad they have so many problems using their IFF and radios properly. I'd love to see a report on how many AF jets have scrambled because the Navy guys dont squawk when they're supposed to. Nothing like scrambling jets because we've got 4 high-speed inbounds heading for Washington DC. Everybody I know who's controlled a mission involving the Navy has a story of how they apparently did their best to F everything up...changing their squawk to match the tanker (who didnt even take off, but didnt let the exercise director know), etc. That incident almost led to the loss of an aircraft.

Navy pilots (yeah I said it) might be among the best when they're IN THEIR ELEMENT. But day to day...I just cant give that title to a group that demonstrates a wanton disregard for basic safety of flight so often. Hell, UHF Guard (243.0) has a nickname...Navy Common.

wabpilot

It is a qualitative measure. In practical terms the USAF, USN and USA are so influential in training the world's military aviatiors that many are simply a branch from one tree. That makes it difficult to separate out one set of aviators from one particular service and say they are the best. Best at what? Best trained? if that is the case then you have to look at the source and the source is the US.

wabpilot

And, you should never play poker with us either.