Mosamania
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Excuse the ignorant reporter I feel like I want to smack her across the face 
Inside the Royal Saudi Air Force by What's up KSA Magazine
What’s Up Jeddah had the honor and privilege to interview Colonel Pilot Mohammed Al- Othman Director of Public Affairs of King Faisal Air Academy at the Royal Saudi Air Force base in Riyadh. He was kind enough to answer some of the most burning questions we had on how to become a jet-fighter.
What’s Up: Colonel we have a lot to ask you today, but lets start from the beginning, how could someone become a jet-fighter?
Colonel Pilot Mohammed: Well once the applicant graduates from high school, he should apply to a central armed forces comity that is in charge of handling all applicants to join any sector of the armed forces, this comity will have to evaluate applicants from different perspectives, such as health condition, educational and intellectual levels. Once the applicant passes and meets the requirements, he gets to pick one of the four main Saudi Armed Forces academies, which are King Abdulaziz Military Academy, King Faisal Air Academy, King Abdullah Academy for Air Defense, and King Fahd Naval College.
What’s Up: So does that mean that anyone who wants to join the air force can do so, as long as he passed this comity’s evaluation process?
Colonel Mohammed: First of all the applicants should be 100% physically fit, next they have to have good English, and they should have the brains to become pilots. And over all they should be between a certain height so that they would fit in the fighter jet.
After the central comity makes sure that the applicants are fit for our needs,* they would first send them through the 45 days of transforming them from civilians to military cadets, after they successfully pass the 45 days the cadets will be sent to us.
What’s Up: It sounds like a long way to go.
Colonel Mohammed: Oh yes, after that the cadets have to finish our English course, because all our curriculums are in English.
What’s Up: And how long would that course take to finish?
Colonel Mohammed: It really depends, it could take from 10 to 53 weeks depending on their level, if any cadet passes the 53 weeks with poor English, he is out for good.
What’s Up: Wow that’s harsh, after spending over a year learning english, you would still kick him out?
Colonel Mohammed: Yes, because if he hasn’t improved his English within the 53 weeks, we don’t need him, he would waste our time. But after the cadets pass that phase, it will be time for what is called ground school, where they will learn aeroscience, aerodynamics, meteorology, physics, mathematics, and everything related to flying, a cadet will never get on board a jet until he knows exactly how everything works, including the stair release mechanism.
After the cadet passes ground school, he moves on to the aviation wing, where we will test him on all our systems, at first he will learn how to fly training aircrafts so he would get the hang of it. And so we can see whether he has the ability to fly or not, if the cadet doesn’t have the ability, we will move him to a ground task.
What’s Up: Amazing, so he still has a long way to go?
Colonel Mohammed: Oh yes, he could end up in fighter control, or ATC.
What’s Up: Hold on, what does a fighter control do, and what is ATC mean anyway?
Colonel Mohammed: A fighter control directs and support a jet-fighter from the ground, he is his extended set of eyes, he is a team member where he supports and guide the pilot when engaged in battle. A pilot doesn’t operate alone, he needs a fighter control on the ground to help him and support him whenever he needs it. In a nutshell a fighter control task is to control the airspace for the jet-fighter.
As for ATC, which stands for Air Traffic Control, his duties are at the airport’s towers, just like the ones you see at any civilian airport, they give jets clearance to takeoff or land.
What’s Up: Lets get back then to our cadet, what’s in store for him?
Colonel Mohammed: Well we start to test him on different types of crafts, ranging from the C-130, helicopters, or jet-fighters, using our state of the art simulators, so that we can decide which one is best for his abilities, depending on certain criteria of course. After that we send our recommendation to the command base, so they would check with the air bases to see what are their needs and requirements.
What’s Up: Sounds so organized, what happens to our cadet from there on?
Colonel Mohammed: He report to the base he is assigned to, and there depending on which type of aircraft he will be flying, he will get specialized ground school again for that certain aircraft. Think of it this way, this aircraft will be his life from now on.
What’s Up: What is the pilot’s life span, in other words at which age would you get him off the jet?
Colonel Mohammed: There is no age, a pilot can fly as long as he is fit to do so, and we conduct a full checkup every year, if he fails any of the medical tests, we will give him one chance to fix it otherwise the pilot will be grounded.
What’s Up: Okay this question is off topic, but it just popped up, how long would it take an F15 jet to fly from Riyadh to Jeddah?
Colonel Mohammed: It depends on how you calculate it, if you are calculating it from point to point, that wold come down to 15 minutes, that’s if you’re flying from Dhahran to Jeddah and started your stopwatch over Riyadh’s airspace, but if you’re going to calculate taking off from Riyadh and then landing in Jeddah it would take between 25 to 30 minutes, because you need to take off and reach a certain altitude, that alone would take between 7 to 10 minutes, then cruise, then land. You can’t reach supersonic without reaching a certain altitude.
What’s Up: We heard rumors that there is certain Squadron or a division, that is on the ready 24/7 all year long, does that group really exists?
Colonel Mohammed: Yes we have these pilots covering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they are on high-alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 52 weeks a year. They can be airborne in less then 10 minutes if needed to defend our country. It is called QRA, which stands for Quick Release Aircrafts. And when we say quick we mean to be ready to engage any enemy no matter what in less then 10 minutes, they make us so proud to be Saudis.
What’s Up: Impressive, how about something fun, does jet-fighters have their own exclusive games?
Colonel Mohammed: Of course, air-bases around the kingdom conduct competitions among themselves to see who has the top gun fighters, let me explain how that works. Lets say that four teams are playing, each two will play against each other, all four will compete in air to air and air to land matches, two teams will be eliminated while two teams will fight for the top gun title. It is something like Ramadan’s football matches for civilians.
What’s Up: Do you get to shoot real ammo during these matches?
Colonel Mohammed: No of course not, we only use dummies, but we compete firing bombs, bullets, and of course missiles.
What’s Up: What’s the downside of being a jet-fighter?
Colonel Mohammed: It is stressful, it gets on your nerves at times, and you never know if you are coming back home again, that flight could be your last flight. If you don’t have the passion, if you are not cut to be a fighter, you can’t fake it for long.
It’s not like what you see in the movies, you have to know what you’re getting yourself into, and you should love it to be a true jet-fighter.
Above and Beyond, What
Inside the Royal Saudi Air Force by What's up KSA Magazine
What’s Up Jeddah had the honor and privilege to interview Colonel Pilot Mohammed Al- Othman Director of Public Affairs of King Faisal Air Academy at the Royal Saudi Air Force base in Riyadh. He was kind enough to answer some of the most burning questions we had on how to become a jet-fighter.
What’s Up: Colonel we have a lot to ask you today, but lets start from the beginning, how could someone become a jet-fighter?
Colonel Pilot Mohammed: Well once the applicant graduates from high school, he should apply to a central armed forces comity that is in charge of handling all applicants to join any sector of the armed forces, this comity will have to evaluate applicants from different perspectives, such as health condition, educational and intellectual levels. Once the applicant passes and meets the requirements, he gets to pick one of the four main Saudi Armed Forces academies, which are King Abdulaziz Military Academy, King Faisal Air Academy, King Abdullah Academy for Air Defense, and King Fahd Naval College.
What’s Up: So does that mean that anyone who wants to join the air force can do so, as long as he passed this comity’s evaluation process?
Colonel Mohammed: First of all the applicants should be 100% physically fit, next they have to have good English, and they should have the brains to become pilots. And over all they should be between a certain height so that they would fit in the fighter jet.
After the central comity makes sure that the applicants are fit for our needs,* they would first send them through the 45 days of transforming them from civilians to military cadets, after they successfully pass the 45 days the cadets will be sent to us.
What’s Up: It sounds like a long way to go.
Colonel Mohammed: Oh yes, after that the cadets have to finish our English course, because all our curriculums are in English.
What’s Up: And how long would that course take to finish?
Colonel Mohammed: It really depends, it could take from 10 to 53 weeks depending on their level, if any cadet passes the 53 weeks with poor English, he is out for good.
What’s Up: Wow that’s harsh, after spending over a year learning english, you would still kick him out?
Colonel Mohammed: Yes, because if he hasn’t improved his English within the 53 weeks, we don’t need him, he would waste our time. But after the cadets pass that phase, it will be time for what is called ground school, where they will learn aeroscience, aerodynamics, meteorology, physics, mathematics, and everything related to flying, a cadet will never get on board a jet until he knows exactly how everything works, including the stair release mechanism.
After the cadet passes ground school, he moves on to the aviation wing, where we will test him on all our systems, at first he will learn how to fly training aircrafts so he would get the hang of it. And so we can see whether he has the ability to fly or not, if the cadet doesn’t have the ability, we will move him to a ground task.
What’s Up: Amazing, so he still has a long way to go?
Colonel Mohammed: Oh yes, he could end up in fighter control, or ATC.
What’s Up: Hold on, what does a fighter control do, and what is ATC mean anyway?
Colonel Mohammed: A fighter control directs and support a jet-fighter from the ground, he is his extended set of eyes, he is a team member where he supports and guide the pilot when engaged in battle. A pilot doesn’t operate alone, he needs a fighter control on the ground to help him and support him whenever he needs it. In a nutshell a fighter control task is to control the airspace for the jet-fighter.
As for ATC, which stands for Air Traffic Control, his duties are at the airport’s towers, just like the ones you see at any civilian airport, they give jets clearance to takeoff or land.
What’s Up: Lets get back then to our cadet, what’s in store for him?
Colonel Mohammed: Well we start to test him on different types of crafts, ranging from the C-130, helicopters, or jet-fighters, using our state of the art simulators, so that we can decide which one is best for his abilities, depending on certain criteria of course. After that we send our recommendation to the command base, so they would check with the air bases to see what are their needs and requirements.
What’s Up: Sounds so organized, what happens to our cadet from there on?
Colonel Mohammed: He report to the base he is assigned to, and there depending on which type of aircraft he will be flying, he will get specialized ground school again for that certain aircraft. Think of it this way, this aircraft will be his life from now on.
What’s Up: What is the pilot’s life span, in other words at which age would you get him off the jet?
Colonel Mohammed: There is no age, a pilot can fly as long as he is fit to do so, and we conduct a full checkup every year, if he fails any of the medical tests, we will give him one chance to fix it otherwise the pilot will be grounded.
What’s Up: Okay this question is off topic, but it just popped up, how long would it take an F15 jet to fly from Riyadh to Jeddah?
Colonel Mohammed: It depends on how you calculate it, if you are calculating it from point to point, that wold come down to 15 minutes, that’s if you’re flying from Dhahran to Jeddah and started your stopwatch over Riyadh’s airspace, but if you’re going to calculate taking off from Riyadh and then landing in Jeddah it would take between 25 to 30 minutes, because you need to take off and reach a certain altitude, that alone would take between 7 to 10 minutes, then cruise, then land. You can’t reach supersonic without reaching a certain altitude.
What’s Up: We heard rumors that there is certain Squadron or a division, that is on the ready 24/7 all year long, does that group really exists?
Colonel Mohammed: Yes we have these pilots covering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they are on high-alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 52 weeks a year. They can be airborne in less then 10 minutes if needed to defend our country. It is called QRA, which stands for Quick Release Aircrafts. And when we say quick we mean to be ready to engage any enemy no matter what in less then 10 minutes, they make us so proud to be Saudis.
What’s Up: Impressive, how about something fun, does jet-fighters have their own exclusive games?
Colonel Mohammed: Of course, air-bases around the kingdom conduct competitions among themselves to see who has the top gun fighters, let me explain how that works. Lets say that four teams are playing, each two will play against each other, all four will compete in air to air and air to land matches, two teams will be eliminated while two teams will fight for the top gun title. It is something like Ramadan’s football matches for civilians.
What’s Up: Do you get to shoot real ammo during these matches?
Colonel Mohammed: No of course not, we only use dummies, but we compete firing bombs, bullets, and of course missiles.
What’s Up: What’s the downside of being a jet-fighter?
Colonel Mohammed: It is stressful, it gets on your nerves at times, and you never know if you are coming back home again, that flight could be your last flight. If you don’t have the passion, if you are not cut to be a fighter, you can’t fake it for long.
It’s not like what you see in the movies, you have to know what you’re getting yourself into, and you should love it to be a true jet-fighter.
Above and Beyond, What
Beating up the weaker sex is what you guys revel at! The mighty macho Saudi male who hasn't even heard of the term, 'chivalry'! Jeeez! 
