Flight Hours - Cold War Era
 

From the logbook of a HuAF captain who flew on MiG-21bis. The yearly flight-hours in the late '70s >

1977 - 133h 36m
http://forum.keypublishing.com/attac...7&d=1368282975

1978 - 171h 3m
http://forum.keypublishing.com/attac...8&d=1368283171

1979 - 139h 17m
http://forum.keypublishing.com/attac...9&d=1368283215

Repülések száma = Flights
Nappal = Daylight
Éjjel = Night
Befüggönyzött kabinban = under curtain
Felhőben = in clouds
Korlátozott látás... = at restricted visibility

Please comment with your data from the same period!
The most interesting: USAFE F-4, Luftwaffe F-4F, RAF FGR Mk2., Lightning etc

I can give data from a decade later; 1989, last year of the Cold War (Tornado F3)

hrs
236 total
182 day
54 night
(6) twin-sticker
17 day IMC
16 night IMC

150 sorties

His average sortie length was 40 minutes, whereas mine was over an hour and a half.
I see he only had 26 hours in day / good weather,vs 165 hrs for me.

I would guess a large part of his sorties were GCI. I had 47 sorties on low level affiliation training or big exercises, and 10 dedicated D/ACT.

I note the Hungarian guy did more hours IMC at night in 1979 than he actually spent airborne* ;)
(*yes, I was the Sqn stats Officer for a while)

F3 - and how many practice Q launches at weekends for the "Wing Commander's AFC". ;)

Knight's Templar this afty??

RAF F4 ( AD), First Tourist...

Jun 81 - Jun 82
Day 160:55
Night 49:20

2Planks- One!, and he didn't get one!

Thank you for your comments!

Or shorter..

He is from 2nd sqdn. Taszar airbase, MiG-21bis. Their primary task was 'dogfight'(most of the GCI work were done by the other sqdn. with MiG-21PF).
10 days in '78 May for example:
http://s15.postimg.org/f45ssz3y3/ppr.jpg

Rep-gep tipusa = aircraft type, 75 = MiG-21bis, 66 = MiG-21U, 69 = MiG-21UM
Melyik ulesbol lett vegrehajtva = from which seat on double seater, E = front, H = back-seat
A repules max. magassaga(km-ben) = max height of the flight in Km
Tenyleges idojaras = real weather
f. teto = cloud roof
f. alap = cloud base
borults = overcast
latas = visibility

The exercises >

533 gp. leharc = 2 vs 2 dogfight
500 "O" = low level, complex aerobatics, teaching from back-seat, over the airbase(with full afterburner from takeoff to landing, the 'famous' Soviet 500 )
226 = low level night intercept
212 = night from backseat as instructor
124/333 = attack on other airfield with full squadron
124/111/68 = attack on other airfield with full squadron
71/534 = 2 vs 2 dogfight
71/535 = 2 vs 2 dogfight
71/536 = 2 vs 2 dogfight
71/537 = 2 vs 2 dogfight
498 = complex aerobatics, ACM, as instructor from backseat
71/95 = low level intercept in pair
71/19/134 = chek flight in front seat - low level route flying
71/250 = low level intercept in clouds, night

Officially 0 for him. Just some occassional 'bouncing' with Hungary based Soviet MiG-23M,ML

:)

Please give the Nr. of flights also!
Is this typical for Germany based RAF F-4 units also in that period? AFAIK the USAFE and Luftwaffe F-4 guys flew less in the late '70s.

Would be interested to know what they called a dogfight
Base Height?
Radar-Vis or just Visual?
How many splits in a sortie? 2/3?
How 'canned' the exercises were?

..and what did they call "low level"?

Those with an interest in this area would do worse than obtain a copy of . Although it deals primarily with the former East German Air Force (EGAF) there is much that could be read across to the Hungarian Air force of the period.

YS

'Manőverező légiharc' = 'Manouvering air combat'

For example > nr.500 started at 50-100m with horizontal 8, with full afterburner, full overload, vertical man's etc..bit something like an airshow. With full burner for 12-14min, must to pull really hard, average G checked by black-box tape after. If you switch off the full burner for a second or the average G's are too low: try again. Nothing tactical, just complex aerobatics at the deck, something like physical training for dogfight....

Visual

Most of the exercises in the series 482-592 came from the Soviet standard ACT program '500s'.
For example n.533-37, some scripted scenarios, 2 in each: you are on CAP, you are under attack, must to react with manouvers 'loop' 'knot' 'roof' ' shell' 'fork'
In other scenarios you are the attacker, in others free-fight etc.

For example this: " 226 = low level night intercept " at the possible lowest height where your radar is working(21bis - no lookdawn capability :)

I think the first RAF pilots who tasted the '21. 1992 Hungary:

http://s30.postimg.org/tchfomz01/ppr3.jpg

http://s14.postimg.org/4u80ukso1/ppr4.jpg

Link back to Air Forces Monthly thread for further discussion.

Why didnt Warpac states adopt MiG-23 en masse and still relied on MiG-21 by 1990? - Page 3

Why didnt Warpac states adopt MiG-23 en masse and still relied on MiG-21 by 1990?

In 1977-1980, aircrew on the Phantom FGR2 Wing at RAF Wildenrath could get around 30 hours a month. A number who transferred in from a previous tour on the Phantom in Germany in the strike/attack/recce role were getting their 1000-hour Phantom badge part way through their 2nd tour. A major contributor to getting these hours were the MINEVALs, MAXEVALs and TACEVALs with an event occurring approximately every 4-6 weeks. During these, aircraft availability was maximized with up to 12 aircraft on a 10 AE squadron whenever it was possible to generate the in-use reserve from 2nd-line and also "arrange" for the aircraft due out to Major at RAF St Athan being retained for a few days after the replacement had been delivered. The normal modus operandi would be to have the QRA(I) aircraft + 7 others each on their own in 8 x Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) and 4 x "spare" aircraft doubled up in a further 2 x HASs. It was not uncommon for each crew to get the 3 sorties allowed each day by RAFG regulations and I distinctly remember occasional waivers being obtained for a 4th sortie in a day. I also remember 92 Sqn getting more than 65 hours in one day and an average serviceability rate of 118% for a 3-day event (before the NATO rules were changed only allowing aircraft established - with tail numbers agreed at the start of the evaluation - to count).

Not difficult when you didn't need to (have to) do any flight planning....;)

Guess you must have been one of those Bruggen wing targets then....

Not Bruggen and only a target when the AD playmates had been given exact route, timings, squawk etc to help them find us .....;)

Do I understand correctly? Three consecutive years in Wildenrath = more than 1000 hours on the Phantom? Well...respect.

<<Not difficult when you didn't need to (have to) do any flight planning...>>

And they usually briefed on Guard......:rolleyes:

Well maybe that happened once or twice, but LLAD in a Wilders jet was definitely the sport of kings, especially when the gingerbeers took the fletchers off.....:ok:

Well done 27mm! You sure did good against all those LCR crews working up on singleton "no evasion" sorties.:ok:

OAP

BTW 27mm, the sport of kings was ACM, or maybe not, in an F4?
Why are you not 20mm?:)

OAP