Good stuff. I remember when that specific episode of Dogfights came out on the History Channel, I actually watched it the first time it was televised and what got me the most was not the claim by Giora Epsteen that he shot Rafi'i at the end of the split-S, or how Rafi'i almost pulled off the maneuver but then stalled, supposedly facing straight up or that he had been killed. What bothered me the most was that the documentary was completely one sided, but more importantly, was the title and the repetitive use of the word "crazy" to describe Rafi'i. If there was anything more disrespectful and arrogant between aviators in combat who supposedly got the better of the other, is to completely insult them by calling them "crazy." Especially if they claimed to have shot him and killed him. Complete lack of respect and pretty telling, actually.
I don't blame Epsteen so much, since he probably had to go with whole motif of the producers to make the video much more appealing and one-sided, to portray the Israeli pilot as the hero combatant and the Egyptian one as the horrible enemy in darker colors and especially crazy. But more so that guy (who I have no idea why they needed an additional pilot/author) Micheal Eder who constantly calls Rafi'i "crazy" and accentuates it purposely several times and every time he mentions him, just to portray that bad image on the Egyptian pilot I thought was very low and in real bad taste.
Not only that, but his description of what Rafi'i was doing when he says "and this crazy Egyptian pilot was doing loops, he was doing breaks he was doing split-S's he was doing everything in the book he was trying to shake him off"........ well yeah, what was he supposed to do? Fly like a mermaid? Thought that part was a bit disingenuous.
Then immediately after that, they claim Epsteen was alone with 11 Egyptian MiGs lol. Yeah, ok.
Then Epsteen says "all the time, he maneuverrr so harrrd that he lose speed and energy like a crrrrazy like we call in Hebrew mashogana." Yeah, what is he supposed to do? lol. Move slowly to give you a clear shot? How stupid was that part? The interesting thing, discussing this event with a couple of former USAF pilots on another forum and one of them described that part by Epsteen as a bit self serving since he was trying to portray the Egyptian pilot not conserving his moves and aircraft while he did, because he was referring to the concept that you want to engage in slow speeds during close-up dog-fighting in order not to bleed energy and lose altitude etc., but that scenario only applies to when a one on one is happening in order to gain the upper position, and only during that time. That's when you conserve energy and you slow speed your maneuvers so you don't overshoot the enemy and give him the advantage to sneak in behind you, but not when the enemy is already at your 6 like it was in this case. Made a lot of sense when several of those guys pointed that out and others agreed on it. When someone is at your 6, you're fighting for your life not slow speed dog-fighting. So that part was a bit disingenuous from Epsteen.
The sticking point to the two accounts is obviously whether Epsteen was doing once Rafai went into the split-S and then was able to come back and shoot Rafi'i's MiG-21 as it was stalling.
Rafai makes the point that Giora lied (he actually calls him a liar in that clip in Arabic) because as soon as he completed the split-S, he describes "skimming the ground" and then "turning right" only to see Giora taking off to the west. Rafi'i's beef is that with the speed that Giora's Mirage was going at while he was chasing him, he would've taken a long time to turn around and come back to catch up to where Rafi'i was after he completed the split-S and if that was the case, he would've had to float in mid-air to accomplish that. That would obviously depend on how quick Rafi'i took to pull off the split-S. Fun stuff.
Rafi'i also mentions that right before the Israeli Mirages surprised them (they were essentially baited which was a common tactic by the Israelis who would send in decoys to lure Egyptian MiGs and then surprise them with another group lurking at low altitude and not on radar) and that those decoys were Israeli Phantom and he got off a shot of one of his Atols at one of those decoy Phantoms and could see the Phantom light up but wasn't allowed to follow it to make sure of the kill because he and the great Mansouri flying together at the time were ordered to return to base, and that's when Giora and co surprised them, hence the ensuing battle.
BTW, for all the stuff that Giora was talking about the Split-S in a MiG-21 being done by Rafi'i was way too low at 3000ft and should be done at a minimum of 6500ft, here is a Romanian MiG-21 doing it right before landing. Imagine doing this in the heat of a battle knowing your life is on the line.
The French pilots are the best at it with their Rafales, they finish off almost all their demos with it. This is probably the most extreme split-S into landing you'll ever see lol.
