x_man
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2007
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Sir, Murad, you mentioned about the very low level flight that you and your co-pilots used to carry out sometimes. (that must take a lot of skill, hats off to you and other pilots)
My question is: "Did you guys used to be questioned by the senior officers back at base, as to why did you carry out this low flight?"
and if "YES", "Were you guys ever punished for doing it?"
But, Sir,, in my view this is very dangerous adventure on the part of pilots, you are well aware of the dangers, like bird strikes etc, so "Does PAF nowadays have any restrictions as to what the present pilots can and cannot do? like these low level flights"
I asked lot of questions, hope you donot mind.
Military pilots are trained and suppose to fly low for various reasons. For that they are trained in a very systematic way while being made aware of all the low level hazards that they might face. Its a risky flying no doubt but it all comes as a second nature once you are adequately and properly trained.
The low level flying training in PAF starts from the academy. The qualified instructors demonstrate the students first and then expect them to do it by themselves. There is a good chunk of Low level Navigation syllabus in academy where you initially start to fly around 500 feet AGL ( above ground level) and once comfortable, subsequently lower your height to 150 feet AGL ( or even further lower). By the time student pilots graduate from academy, join Fighter conversion units, qualify operational conversion and finally join their first fighter squadron, Low Level flying is second nature to them.
Over the decades, flying operations have matured and changed dramatically. As Sir MK has stated that flight safety has taken the front seat and todays pilots cannot think of doing many things that their predecessors did. Every aircraft is equipped with transponder, there is a good network of low level radars and hence there are many eyes that are monitoring that what you are doing up there and where you are going. Aircrafts and pilot training have become very expensive and no one wants to risk losing a life or a machine while doing something stupid and utterly unnecessary. While pilots still fly at ultra low level altitudes as operations demand so but its all very organised and scrutinised.
However, sometimes people still do silly things like buzzing over towns or unauthorised flying but they cant get away from the bamboo that follows later.
).
