You can master a new type of aircraft in 5 hours, but not its combat use – the aviator explained the nuances

To an experienced pilot, to master a new aircraft &mdash ; takeoff, flight on a short route, landing — 10 or even five hours is enough. Combat application — another thing, even experienced pilots need a sufficient amount of time for this, sometimes even to master a new modification of an already known aircraft. The President of the Ukrainian Aviation Association of Pilots and Aircraft Owners “AOPA Ukraine”, Ukrainian aviator and volunteer Hennadiy Khazan, said this on the air FREEDOM.

“Combat application — it is most valuable, it takes quite a lot of time. Different aircraft, different types of devices are used here, there is commonality, but there are also specifics. Therefore, special training is conducted for each type of aircraft, and then this type is recorded in the flight book, that the pilot is allowed to fly on a specific type of aircraft, sometimes even its modification is indicated, if the modification is very different from one another. This allows you to use the aircraft's capabilities qualitatively and completely, for 100%,”, — he explained.

That is why the training of Ukrainian pilots for the F-16 took a long time, with the Mirage 2000-5 there will be a similar situation, the aviator believes.

“ Journalists often ask and very often viewers say: “ Well, what is there? Our boys know how to fly!”. They know how to fly, and it is not difficult to fly. And combat use — there are a lot of nuances, a lot of different weapon systems, interaction with various other systems that are used to conduct the battle. This is all very serious… Based on the combat experience of our pilots who are already participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war, I think that it will be much faster. But for young pilots, yes, of course, they need to spend more time, but it pays off a hundredfold.”, — Gennady Khazan summarized.