Sky an open road for SU-30 pilots

In its class, the Su-30 MKI has no competition. Those who tried - the F-18 and F-16 - have failed.

Ask the most experienced Su-30 pilots in the country. They'll tell you why. Ashu and Parag Lall, who are flying the Su-30, said: "No other aircraft in the world can perform the yaw turn and the tail slide, or do a vertical climb at 80 degrees and prepare for an angle of attack."

The yaw turn is a 360-degree turn that the Su-30 can perform mid-air, while climbing or descending in flight. "If it is an attack situation, the Su-30 has the capacity to slow down, turn around immediately in any direction and shoot. Most other aircraft will have to do a big circle," Ashu explains.

In actual flight, the sight of the 360-degree turn as the Su-30 descends, is a wonder you'll think is humanly impossible.

The tail slide too, is as amazing. "The aircraft virtually stops mid-air and then begins to fly reverse at zero or even negative speed. No aircraft in the world flies reverse. Flying reverse puts enormous stress on the engine. But the Su-30 can take it," Lall says.

Yet another wonder of the aircraft is the angle of attack. "The Su-30 can climb and attain an angle of attack of 80 degrees alpha, something which is never easy. And it does so comfortably," pilots Jeetu Yadav and Rahul Chauhan add.

The four Pune-based pilots say thrust vectoring nozzle is the technology in the Su-30 that allows it to do near-impossible manoeuvres. "The Su-30 defies the laws of aerodynamics. It defies the laws of control,'' they echo.

Ashu has been flying the Su-30 from 1997, which means his complexity threshold has been set by the Su-30. "All my life, I've been flying only the SU-30. There is no mission I've not undertaken in the aircraft. Every day begins and ends with the Su-30. So, it has come to a point where its complexity is second nature to me. I now try to do anything more complex than the existing state of complexity in the aircraft - that's the extent to which I am used to it. I breathe and live the Su-30."

Has fear of death ever crossed his mind? "I feel safest in the Su-30 cockpit. Where's the place for fear? There is no traffic jam out there, is there?" he asks.

The pilots have this to tell students: "Try the ultimate job in the world. There is no high that is comparable to the high of piloting a combat aircraft. We would like students to give it a try. Get to an aircraft, smell it and you'll soon see that you want to fly it."


Source: Prashanth G N, TNN, Feb 11, 2011

(25.02.2011)