Comments by "SNS" (@Rahultharki420) on "On Cam: Putin's Fighters 'Harass' U.S, Drones Over Syria; America Fumes, Moscow Shrugs" video.
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Major General Vladimir Alexeyev (retired), former head of Combat Training Directorate:
I received theoretical instruction on the Su-27 in spring 1990 and started flying Flankers at Myrhorod that summer.
Something which really gave me a positive impression of the Flanker is its jaw-dropping thrust-to-weight ratio. I was also surprised by the exceptional view from the cockpit. When I first rolled an Su-27, I felt as if I was going to fall out of the cockpit! Another surprise was the ease of flying. The new fly-by-wire controls gave the impression that you just think of doing something, and the airplane does it as if of its own accord.
The Flanker’s speed and acceleration are good, but there is one [bad side-effect]. Once you exceed 850 to 900 kilometers per hour (528 to 559 mph) in a twin-seat Flanker, or 900 kilometers per hour in a single-seat version, the cockpit noise increases with the increase in speed. This is because of the bubble canopy. The disturbed airflow behind the canopy creates a crashing sound. It would sometimes get so loud at speeds in excess of 1,100 kilometers per hour that you couldn’t hear the radio.
In March 1997, I demonstrated the Su-27 in flight for U.S. Air Force General Mike Ryan, at that time commander of [U.S. Air Forces in Europe] and later U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff. After the takeoff, I gave him the controls, and he immediately pulled 7Gs! He wanted to see how quickly the Flanker pulls up. The Eagle is a little wooden when pulling up, a little slow. The General wanted to compare and pulled the stick back quickly, as you do in an F-15. The Flanker immediately pulled up, almost vertically. Mike Ryan didn’t expect that he would pull so many Gs when doing that, because he was flying like in an F-15, with quick, wide stick movements, which you can use in the very stable Eagle. He reacted very well, pushed the stick forward immediately.
When we met in the States the following year, he told me he was surprised by how well the big and powerful Flanker maneuvered.
Colonel Yury Bulavka, deputy commander for pilot training of the 831st Galatska Tactical Aviation Brigade.
During the second year of junior high, I decided that I would be a fighter pilot. I looked at videos of famous Soviet Flanker test pilots—Anatoly Kvochur and Viktor Pugachev—but never imagined that I would fly the Su-27 myself.
I first flew in an Su-27UB twin-seat combat trainer in fall 2004. However, because of a fuel shortage in the air force at that time, it wasn’t until 22 April 2007 that I first flew in a single-seat Su-27. It accelerates faster than the twin-seater and is more powerful. The most difficult part of that flight was the landing—nobody was there to assist and monitor me from the rear cockpit, and that was unnerving.
We often flew against the MiG-29 during exercises. It was really interesting to observe how fighters of two very different categories compare: The Fulcrum is light and small, and our Flanker is considerably bigger. The Fulcrum is good in the vertical plane, it can jump up to a higher altitude quickly. The Flanker has more powerful engines, but it is also heavier. The Flanker’s advantage is that it can drag the Fulcrum into horizontal and oblique maneuvers, and conduct these at high angles of attack and speeds, with which the Fulcrum pilots simply won’t be able to cope for long. For example, the same maneuver might require a pilot to pull 5Gs in a Flanker, but requires 7Gs in a Fulcrum.
However, altitude was an important additional factor. The Su-27 is more nimble at sea level and medium altitude than it is above 8,000 meters (26,200 feet), while the MiG-29 is better at higher altitude.
The maneuvering capabilities of the Flanker are excellent, of course. For example, during air combat maneuvering training at the Clear Sky 2018 exercises—with the F-15C Eagles of the 144th Fighter Wing of the California Air National Guard—we won in three out of four engagements. Naturally, you need to survive long enough to close to visual range, because the Eagle’s electronic equipment and armament are much better. Ukraine has factories that manufacture air-to-air missiles, but we are not quite at the level of modern technology. We need fire-and-forget missiles, because illuminating a target with your radar after launch (with semi-active radar homing) is now a relic of the past. The Russians have the R-77 missile with active homing, while our R-27 is still semi-active.
A significant advantage of the Flanker is its long range. It is as if we are carrying extra fuel tanks, but internally, rather than under the wings. This allows us to carry more weapons on the under-wing hardpoints.
Colonel Sergey Zhuravlev (retired), former senior inspector pilot of the Combat Training Directorate.
I graduated from the Chernihiv Military Aviation School in 1985. I was assigned to serve on the MiG-23 with the 168th Fighter Regiment [in] Starokostiantyniv. Just after we reported, we happened to visit the 831st Regiment at Myrhorod. We asked to take a look at the aircraft it was flying, and they agreed, but warned us, “Don’t come close. The aircraft is secret!” We didn’t go farther than the smoking area—that’s about 100 meters from the aircraft. Until then, we’d only seen images of the Flanker, and now it was already flying here!
Sometime later, I was lucky to become part of an experiment: four Lieutenants, myself included, all with a third-class rating, were chosen and sent to Lipetsk [in Russia] to convert to the Flanker. We got to Lipetsk, the Soviet air force combat training center, at the end of 1986. As soon as we got there, they told us, “We’ll show you a MiG‑29 and Su-27 display today, so that you will see just what you’ll have a chance to fly.” A lot of people from different regiments lined up along the runway. Well, they got a show they won’t forget. A MiG-29 took off, pulled up into a loop right on take-off. He crashed right next to the runway with all his fuel on board. Burning fuel spilled from the aircraft, there were many dead, many others badly burned. We four were lucky, even though we were close.
I got the chance to fly an F-15E once, following the transatlantic transit flight of Su-27s from Myrhorod to Seymour Johnson [Air Force Base in North Carolina] in 1998. I remember clearly how long the preflight check took. For us, you jump into the cockpit, start the engines, and then you are away in five minutes. In the F-15, we sat there for 20 minutes just to check the systems. We sat there, then some kind of onboard failure was discovered and we switched to another fighter, which was checked for a similar amount of time.
Over the range, the U.S. pilot took his hands off the control stick—do what you want! First he showed me maneuvers, then I controlled the aircraft and repeated them. We communicated mostly by signs; the language barrier didn’t allow for more back then. Overall, the F-15 is “softer.” You pull the stick, and it goes smoothly in that direction. In the Flanker, you can achieve greater vertical speeds and angles of attack. In the turn, the Su-27 is also more maneuverable
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