Aviation Week, Former USN F/A-18 Pilot Flies SU-27/MIG-29

[lenninscjay]

Saw a post on reddit in r/aviation linking this and thought some folks here might like the article.

http://aviationweek.com/blog/pilot-reports-mikoyan-mig-29-and-sukhoi-su-27-1990

Aviation Week Editor (former aviator) flew both an SU-27 and a MIG-29 a while back. The articles are old but were just re-posted as part of an anniversary I think. Good read. (The links to the original scanned articles are mid-way through the online article.)

 

[Minnesota Tomcat]

Very interesting article. Looks like the Russians follow the 'KISS' rule with their aircraft. Sometimes simple is better than complex. With complexity comes an increased likelihood of something breaking.

 

[wlawr005]

The lacking tech spoken of in the article wasn't because the aircraft was simple. The problems the author mentioned were more related to the pilot/systems interface available to them at the time. A shit load of tech with an overly complicated interface hinders capabilities. The 30+ year old F/A-18C/D that I fly still has one of the most outstanding user interface systems designed.

They have long since fixed the problem.

 

[Minnesota Tomcat]

I am pretty impressed with recent videos of the F/A 18 C and D models. I've seen pilots do some pretty incredible moves with her and she isn't even vectored thrust. IMHO she is worthy adversary against these Russian fighters. As one pilot put it, she's an aircraft with a mature system. They have worked all the bugs out of it.

 

[wlawr005]

Very simply, it is very much a worthy adversary.

 

[lenninscjay]

This guy flew these jets back in the 90's. I'm sure Russia has made some upgrades to their fleet since then. What I thought was interesting is how all this time they've been using engines which where considered for the most part disposable.

 

[SynixMan]

Very simply, it is very much a worthy adversary.

 

[Flash]

This guy flew these jets back in the 90's. I'm sure Russia has made some upgrades to their fleet since then. What I thought was interesting is how all this time they've been using engines which where considered for the most part disposable.

Well, they can change them out. Their engines are not disposable but definitely not to the quality standards of western ones.

 

[wlawr005]

Haha, I was talking about the Su-27, but I see how it came across.