PLAAF's pilots

In4ser

Junior Member
How good are PLAAF's fighter pilots? I was under the impression they were quite underwhelming, especially with the whole J-11s losing Turkish F4s. But apparently they do 200 hours a year?

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Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
i seem to remember the hours depend on the type of the plane pilots train. older models are supposedly less available and need more maintenance so they are kept to 130 hours a year per pilot. Those should be q5, older j8, j7 and the like. On the other hand, j11 pilots were credited with 180 hours per year half a decade ago. I would think it is quite possible by now j11 and j10 pilots are all doing 180-200 hours per year. There are certainly enough mentions of such hours.
 

weig2000

Captain
A very good overview of PLAAF in the link.

All of this—and much more—seems to dilute the validity of the charge by US politicians and military leaders that China lacks "transparency" in its military expansion.

I've made the similar point in several posts. Glad to see it is echoed by more PLA observers.

In the PLAAF itself, the present commander, Gen. Xu Qiliang, may become a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). The CMC, headed by President Hu, controls the PLA. In turn, speculation holds that Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence and foreign affairs, will become commander of the PLAAF and a member of the CMC.

I'm impressed. The article was published in February, 2012. As of today, the above predictions have come true.

General Xu Qiliang is a visionary leader. He has succinctly articulated PLAAF's new doctrine as "Integrated air and space operation, balanced defense and offense posture." (“空天一体,攻防兼备”)


How good are PLAAF's fighter pilots? I was under the impression they were quite underwhelming, especially with the whole J-11s losing Turkish F4s. But apparently they do 200 hours a year?

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ahho

Junior Member
How good are PLAAF's fighter pilots? I was under the impression they were quite underwhelming, especially with the whole J-11s losing Turkish F4s. But apparently they do 200 hours a year?

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I am curious what year was that when they were doing such exchange exercise.

I have read somewhere in this forum where even some j-7 pilot were able to defeat j-11 during the early days when they got the new plane. It was said that PLAAF were still employing some old doctrine. I am still curious why they put missile pods for ground attack during exercise.
 

asif iqbal

Lieutenant General
USAF clocks more than 260 hours per year which is the highest in the world, Israel which clocks in excess of 240 hours for some select aircraft, Pakistan also clocks over 200 hours approaching 220-240 on select aircraft

Some of Pakistans Air Force air commodores are pretty young and have over 3500 hours of flying experience, should be noted that in war time this figure is 3-4 times as high

Best way to train your pilots is keep them in the sky and give them hours under the belts, nothing can train you for flying unless you do flying
 

luhai

Banned Idiot
I am curious what year was that when they were doing such exchange exercise.

I have read somewhere in this forum where even some j-7 pilot were able to defeat j-11 during the early days when they got the new plane. It was said that PLAAF were still employing some old doctrine. I am still curious why they put missile pods for ground attack during exercise.

The exchange exercise happened in 2010, however that statement of 8:0 loss is based on rumor from Chinadaily forum, which quotes a Sina blog posting have since gone... so not exactly the most reliable of sources...
Originals here:
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)

There are rumor of Turkish F-16 defeating J-11 8:0, Turkish F-4 defeating J-11 8:1, etc.
here:
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here:
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here
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here:
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.

the rather outlandish Turkish F-86 defeating Su-27 8:0
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Almost all of these "news" are from Tiexue BBS, not the most reliable of sources...

Here is what we do know that affair:

The Planes sent over are the original batch of Su-27UBKs China acquired from Russia, they performaned some joint air maneuvers with Turkey, with Conflicting source on whether F-16 join the drill or not
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But one thing is clear, no report on what exactly what the Su-27s did in Turkey was ever leaked. We only have this photo, allegedly from official source. But then, even then some people say there are marks that indicate the photo is photoshoped...
main-su-27ubk.jpg
 
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