How good are Chinese pilots?

Do PAF and PLAAF ever do exercises together? J10/J11 vs F16s?

If not, they should.

I'd be interested to know how Chinese pilots compare with USA, Indian, Russian, Pakistan, etc.

well, probably not very good. Even the people on the Chinese sites have admitted that PLAAF pilots are not as good as PAF pilots and probably not as good as IAF pilots.

tphuang said:

well, probably not very good. Even the people on the Chinese sites have admitted that PLAAF pilots are not as good as PAF pilots and probably not as good as IAF pilots.

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Not too good. But i doubt if PLAAF pilots are worse than IAF and PAF pilots.

It will be good if they let me join! I will make up for the slack :nutkick:

On a more serious note, they do get more training flight hours than average (IIRC), but I forgot how much it was and where I got that from

skyhawk2005 said:

I'd be interested to know how Chinese pilots compare with USA, Indian, Russian, Pakistan, etc.

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In terms of average pilot quality, the PLAAF pilots tend to receive fewer hours of training/flying time than USAF counterparts:


Based upon an analysis of Chinese literature and interviews in China, it is evident that PLAAF pilots do not fly as many hours as their Western counterparts. According to interviews with PLAAF and foreign air force officials, the PLAAF's flying hours have not changed appreciably over the past fifteen years, but they have changed their training techniques. Since the end of the 1970s, bomber pilots have consistently flown an average of 80 hours per year; fighter pilots 100 to 110 hours; and A-5 ground attack pilots up to 150 hours. (40) This compares to about 215 hours per year for US Air Force bomber, fighter, and attack crews. USAF pilots also conduct numerous hours training on advanced simulators.

However other sources claim that elite PLAAF combat pilots receive 170-200 hours of fliying time annually, which is pretty close to USAF average of 215.

Adeptitus thanks for posting that information about the flight hours that PLAAF flight crews recieve. That's some mighty low numbers. I wonder if fuel is the problem? Or maintaince of the aircraft? Who knows for sure?? But if the PLAAF wants to be a top notch air force they need to increase training and flight hours fo it's air crews.

Perhaps the PLAAF aircrews are recieving plenty of training in flight simulators. Anyone know?

adeptitus said:

In terms of average pilot quality, the PLAAF pilots tend to receive fewer hours of training/flying time than USAF counterparts:

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Based upon an analysis of Chinese literature and interviews in China, it is evident that PLAAF pilots do not fly as many hours as their Western counterparts. According to interviews with PLAAF and foreign air force officials, the PLAAF's flying hours have not changed appreciably over the past fifteen years, but they have changed their training techniques. Since the end of the 1970s, bomber pilots have consistently flown an average of 80 hours per year; fighter pilots 100 to 110 hours; and A-5 ground attack pilots up to 150 hours. (40) This compares to about 215 hours per year for US Air Force bomber, fighter, and attack crews. USAF pilots also conduct numerous hours training on advanced simulators.

However other sources claim that elite PLAAF combat pilots receive 170-200 hours of fliying time annually, which is pretty close to USAF average of 215.

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i though u.s pilots recieved around 189 hours, and german pilots 150 hours.

id have to say, plaaf pilots are probably not among the best trained. perhaps with the introduction of som many new systems so quickl;y, the pilots havnt had time to adapt to all of them. but compared east asian Af's, the plaaf should still rank pretty high.

i dont know how far the plaa'fs gotten on simulater tech. they have 2 su-27 sims, a couple desktop computer mkk2 sims, and some specualted j-10 sims. they also have some numbers of j-8 sims that can be used to practice air ro air refueling.

bd popeye said:

Adeptitus thanks for posting that information about the flight hours that PLAAF flight crews recieve. That's some mighty low numbers. I wonder if fuel is the problem? Or maintaince of the aircraft? Who knows for sure?? But if the PLAAF wants to be a top notch air force they need to increase training and flight hours fo it's air crews.

Perhaps the PLAAF aircrews are recieving plenty of training in flight simulators. Anyone know?

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too many pilots, not enough planes? Also, it could be the result of a lack of trainers. J-10A has been up in the air for a while now, but J-10B has not even entered production stage yet. Until JL-15 becomes operational (possbily JL-9), the 4th generation training in plaaf will be lacking big time.

I wonder why PAF and PLAAF pilots don't have mock combats?

Since the two share similar planes J7s, it would make sense for both countries to test their pilots against each other.

a couple desktop computer mkk2 sims

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Are you kidding me??? I have a couple desktop computer sims...

I am sure by sims they mean the large cockpit type sims that emulate real air combat, not the software that I can get at Costco for $20...

Then again, the US army tried to train their troops w/ a computer game...