PLAAF AND PLAN Pilot Training

UCSDAE

New Member
I drive, and it's a pain in the ass to park on campus nowadays
but anyway, the book did not mention about simulator hrs though.
As for Chinese simulator hrs, I m blank on that, have no clue.

P.S. there is an PLAAF officer manual in IR/PS as well, but it's in Chinese, and I m a little to busy(finals) to actually pick it up and read it. If I have time over the spring break, I will try to translate some of it and share it with you guys.
 
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crobato

Colonel
VIP Professional
Pace Visits Chinese Air Base, Checks Out Su-27 Fighter-Bomber
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

ANSHAN, China, March 24, 2007 – In a move toward openness, Chinese military officials let the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff examine their top-of-the-line combat aircraft and allowed him to speak with pilots and ground personnel here.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace and his party toured Anshan Air Base, home of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s 1st Air Division, and he examined a Chinese-built Su-27 fighter-bomber. The base was part of a visit to the Shenyang Military Region.

The 1st Air Division has three flying regiments and has Su-27s, F-8s and F-7Es. The Su-27 is the top of the food chain for the PLA Air Force, and Pace was the first American to get such a close look at the aircraft, senior Chinese officials said.

NATO pilots know the aircraft by the code name Flanker, and former Soviet Union engineers designed it to counter the American F-15 Eagle. The Su-27 was engineered to be an air superiority fighter and the Chinese still use it in that role, but they also can use it as a precision ground-attack aircraft. The Russians licensed the Chinese to build the plane in China.

The Su-27 does have some drawbacks. Some of the avionic packages are Russian, and the “warranty isn’t the best,” said a U.S. military official speaking on background. There is no air-to-air refueling capability for the Su-27, and that limits the Flanker to a range of about 1,500 kilometers.

Pace, Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman, and Air Force Brig. Gen. Ralph Jodice, the defense attaché at the American embassy in Beijing, climbed into the cockpit of the aircraft. In addition, Chinese pilots flew four aircraft around the airfield to give the chairman and his party a small look at what the aircraft can do in the air.


While he said examining the aircraft was good, Pace said he was even more interested in the PLA Air Force personnel. The chairman spoke to pilots and enlisted men about their service, the qualities of their aircraft and their training and experience of the personnel. He said they were highly motivated and impressed him with their professionalism.

Chinese officials said all their pilots are college graduates and that 96 percent of them are capable of handling complex air operations. The officials said pilots average 120 hours of flying time per year with most of their training centered on tactical considerations. Roughly 35 percent of pilot training is at night. They said they had about 130 pilots for the 100 aircraft in the unit.

In comparison, U.S. Air Force pilots average about 250 flying hours per year and there are roughly 120 pilots per 100 aircraft.

Pace thanked the Chinese personnel for their work. He said their efforts are helping to bring China and the United States closer together. Pace told the airmen that the United States and China have many common national interests and that it is in Asia’s and the world’s interest for the two countries to cooperate.

During the visit, the base commander pinned a set of Chinese pilot wings on Pace’s uniform. Pace told the commander, and all the pilots he met, that, “while I did not earn the wings, I will wear them as a compliment to your professionalism.”
 

szbd

Junior Member
130 hours a year, seems not that much. "Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey", is this the top NCO in the army?
 

crobato

Colonel
VIP Professional
That is an average figure, which can also mean the elite units get more than that and the Category B units get less. I'm not sure if the figure being quoted is actually sourced from the meeting or the reporter just pulling it out of previously published white papers.
 

Chengdu J-10

Junior Member
The average Chinese pilot would probably only get 130 hours like J-7 & J-8, while the aggressor squad piloting the flankers & J-10's get roughly 200 hours. Since there are more J-7 & J-8 pilots then there are J-10 & flanker ones the average training hours gets pulled down in favour of numerous J-7 & J-8 pilots.
 

beijingcar

New Member
last November, a PLAAF J7B jet crashed and killed its pilot in XinJiang, It was on the news because his ride hit a bird on take off and he thinks he can land the powerless jet back to base, he force landed short the runway( about 300 meters short, but from the pictures, it seems he lined up the runway good), the jet hit a dike and he got killed. The pilot is older type about 43 years old and had been flying J7 for the passed 10 years ( before that J6), the news reported that he flew 145 hours so far for the 2006 year and he is 90% done for the hours that needed, so it come to about 160 hours total for the year if he had not been killed.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
What sort of hours do PLAAF pilots get in the simulators? And does anyone know the quality of their simulators?

If they are indeed getting 150+ hours training a year that is great. A lot can be accomplished in that time.
 

beijingcar

New Member
What sort of hours do PLAAF pilots get in the simulators? And does anyone know the quality of their simulators?

If they are indeed getting 150+ hours training a year that is great. A lot can be accomplished in that time.

This pilot who got killed has about 120 hours of flying per year average, the news report told us how long he has been flying and total flying hours ( to the Mins) The report also said that in the recent years, he has been flew a lot more Hrs, so I take he maybe was average about 110 flying hours years before, but in the passed 5 or 6 years, he maybe averaged 150-160. I am not sure he is from CatB units or not, because from the jet ( J7B) his unit belongs to CatB units ( I saw the picture of the crashed Jet). But the report also said that in the passed 5 years, this pilot has taken the most Ready Alerts in this unit, mostly during Chinese holidays when a lot pilots wants to go home. PLAF Ready Alert is nothing to laugh at, your jet at full Armmo and fully tanked, your G suite on the whole day, depends the location, you and your jet has to be taken off from the airfield and in the air in X amount of Mins. As for Sim, the picture of the older J7, J8 Sims are not very advanced, and I do not think all the frontline units has the Sims ( the ones have them are conversion, training units). The Sims for the JH7, J11, J10 have being developed, and being reported from time to time, It seems to me at least, the advance Sims were used to train fresh pilots to be familiar with a brand new type of airplane, to teach them the basic and Emergency OP, once they ( the pilots) passed the ground Sim test, then they are cleared to fly in the 2 seaters. Once those pilots become IOC, I do not know how much Sim time they got ( one would think a lot hours).
 
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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Thanks for that info. It apperas the PLAAF has come a long way and is a very professional air force.

As for your discription of alert status. Trust me it's close to the same world wide..I know on a USN CV(N) fighter jocks hated alert 5..That meant their butt hadda be in the aircraft with the engine turning. Not very comfortable....trust me!
 
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beijingcar

New Member
This pilot was in the news because he could have punched out, in fact, control tower and his flight leader order him to, but because he saw some village and farmers on the field, he decided to dump fuel and turn back ( the Jet was on full armmo as well, when it crashed, it burned for 3 hours), if the dike was not there, he would have made it. He lined up fine.
 
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