That’s right. YEARS ago, during my senior year cadet summer at the Air Force Academy, I got sent to an F-4 squadron at Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC, for three weeks. While there, the Aggressor squadron from Nellis showed up to teach some DACM to the F-4 jocks. They were flying painted-up T-38’s (yep....not even F-5’s for F-20’s; plain ol’ ‘38’s that we all later flew in UPT).
These guys were unreal. They took me with ‘em for a fair number of sorties out past the NC coastline. They positively kicked the living s**t out of the F-4 drivers.
I learned first-hand, then and there, that the quality of the pilot is as important or MORE important than the aircraft. True, speed, acceleration, avionics, etc. ALL count in a big way.....but a far superior pilot in a lesser aircraft can still kick yer ass.
Thirty years ago I had a neighbor who worked full time for the Texas Air National Guard. He used to claim that his squadron (he was not a pilot) scored better than 2-1 over line Air Force squadrons. This was older (for fighter) pilots who flew F-4s on the weekends beating younger men, whose full time job was flying F-16s. The difference was experience. The Air National Guard pilots usually had several, or many, times the flying hours of the Air Force pilots, and many were Vietnam veterans.
On paper the Air Force, with full time fighter pilots, who being younger had faster reflexes, flying the 1970s era F-16, should have dominated the Air National Guard pilots flying 1950s F-4s.