Sapper
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2009
- Messages
- 356
- Reaction score
- 1
Dear,
I don't know why people keep forgetting that Pakistan and India both use Mig-21 variants, i.e. Mig-21Bison for India and FT7 for Pakistan, as supersonic training and OCC. No pilot in PAF goes from FT-5/K-8 to operational unit without clocking at-least 500 hours on FT-7 or F-7P. Mig-21 variants are extremely potent supersonic platforms, except for their component and airframe reliability factor.
Compare this to USAF, and they use F5 variant called the T38 for the same role. T38 is much better because its component, engine and airframe reliability is much much better than any of the Mig21 variant. But the purpose of both is same. Give the pilot handson experience in High-G Supersonic aerial combat training.
When you specialize to any fighter after completing the OCC course, you get to have rigorous experience in anything and everything that a perticular platform can and cannot do. Clocking almost 200 hours in almost a year qualifies you to be put to active combat status, but to master it, requires more.
Conversion between similar platform might be considered as easy, but its not. A pilot upgrading from F15C/F16C to FA22 will learn to fly the plane in less than a dozen hours but will still take hundereds of hours to master all the weapons, G-dynamics, radar/jamming-modes, mission profiles, efficiency regimes, and energy manouvers to utilize his equipment to its full potential.
A fighter plane is like a sports car, not like a Toyota or a Honda. Hell, i can drive Toyota one day, Honda the next and jump into Mercedes whenever i get a chance, but to drive an F1 car, and that too like a Schumacher takes lots and lots of practive, and only then you get to beat Alonso over and over and over again. And once you're out, and want back in, it requires retraining. This is not like driving a proverbial cycle, once learnt is learnt, this requires a whole different level of training and mental focus, which takes years of practice.
Regards,
Sapper
I don't know why people keep forgetting that Pakistan and India both use Mig-21 variants, i.e. Mig-21Bison for India and FT7 for Pakistan, as supersonic training and OCC. No pilot in PAF goes from FT-5/K-8 to operational unit without clocking at-least 500 hours on FT-7 or F-7P. Mig-21 variants are extremely potent supersonic platforms, except for their component and airframe reliability factor.
Compare this to USAF, and they use F5 variant called the T38 for the same role. T38 is much better because its component, engine and airframe reliability is much much better than any of the Mig21 variant. But the purpose of both is same. Give the pilot handson experience in High-G Supersonic aerial combat training.
When you specialize to any fighter after completing the OCC course, you get to have rigorous experience in anything and everything that a perticular platform can and cannot do. Clocking almost 200 hours in almost a year qualifies you to be put to active combat status, but to master it, requires more.
Conversion between similar platform might be considered as easy, but its not. A pilot upgrading from F15C/F16C to FA22 will learn to fly the plane in less than a dozen hours but will still take hundereds of hours to master all the weapons, G-dynamics, radar/jamming-modes, mission profiles, efficiency regimes, and energy manouvers to utilize his equipment to its full potential.
A fighter plane is like a sports car, not like a Toyota or a Honda. Hell, i can drive Toyota one day, Honda the next and jump into Mercedes whenever i get a chance, but to drive an F1 car, and that too like a Schumacher takes lots and lots of practive, and only then you get to beat Alonso over and over and over again. And once you're out, and want back in, it requires retraining. This is not like driving a proverbial cycle, once learnt is learnt, this requires a whole different level of training and mental focus, which takes years of practice.
Regards,
Sapper
