THAT -- the highlighted -- happens more often than you think.
I learned to fly in a Cessna 152 back in 1981-82. Does that mean I can fly an F-4 ? If I put you, assuming you are a licensed automobile operator, into the cockpit of an F1 racer, does that mean you can credibly challenge Castroneves ? Your comment about the F-16 seems to be of the typical 'fanboy' kind who focuses solely on hardware specs and not on the human factor.
Operation Bolo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Operation Bolo, half of the North Vietnamese MIG-21s were shot down by F-4s that were inferior in most specs. Your comment of "unless the pilot doesn't know what he is doing." was truly applicable there. The North Vietnamese pilots knew how to take off and land, knew how to operate the throttle and stick, and knew how to trigger the weapons, but that was pretty much "know what he is doing." The result ? The North Vietnamese pilots and their MIG-21s got slaughtered. Operation Bolo became text book example in every air forces in the world on how a wily pilot in a 'mediocre' aircraft can prevail over an opponent flying a technically superior machine.
Do you know what it is like to view the world from 20k ft from the bubble cockpit of an F-16 or anything equivalent ? I do. Do you know what it is like to have 9g on your body ? I do. Do you know what it is like to fly 10 meters altitude over the English Channel in Terrain Following mode in an F-111 ? I do.
Your comment about the F-16 compares to the F-15 was also revealing of your ignorance. Clue for you: No F-15 pilot want to meet an F-16, even the older analog A model, in a dogfight.
Here is something I learned from my 10 yrs in the USAF...
In a fight, you win not by fighting under your opponent's rules, but by forcing him to fight under yours. And cheating is allowed.
Anything that your airplane can do that your opponent either cannot or is inferior in specs, is a rule. The F-16 can turn 9g but the F-15 cannot, so position yourself to where you force the F-15 into a turning fight. The 9g capability is a rule. The F-15 have a larger radar than the F-16, that is a rule, so you being the F-15 pilot, should do whatever you can to maximize that advantage and force your opponent, F-16 or any fighter, to fight under your radar advantages. No matter what you fly, F-15 or F-16 or SU-30 or MIG-21 or F-4, how well you know yours and your opponent's machines determines how quickly you can force him to fight under your specs advantages -- rules. Your training, experiences, and wit matters as much as the hardware you fly.
What make the F-16 an extraordinary aircraft, one that
WILL enter military aviation history among world's A-list, is its entire package, from design to shape to ergonomics, that make it easier for its pilot to move his opponent into inferior positions, in other words, if the F-16 pilot know what he is doing, the F-16 will make it easier for the pilot to win. You can have an airframe that can pull 9g, but if it require the pilot more cockpit work to achieve a 9g turn, odds are good that this pilot will lose in a fight against the F-16, which make it so easier for its pilot to turn 9g. Soviet/Russian aircrafts do not have a reputation of being easy to learn and to fly. How do we know ? We have a fleet of Soviet/Russian fighters in our possession to study. Our 'Red Eagles' pilots flew MIG-21s and trained US pilots on how to out-wit a MIG-21 pilot.
Other than against the Raptor, I will take my chances in an F-16.