How To Win In A Dogfight: Stories From A Pilot Who Flew F-16s And MiGs

Foxtrot Alpha ^ | 03 February 2015 | Tyler Rogoway

[sukhoi-30mki]

Lt. Col. Fred "Spanky" Clifton is one of the most experienced aggressor pilots ever, having flown the F-15, F-5, F-16 and the notorious MiG-29. He's been in dogfights with pretty much every fighter out there and he's an instructor at the prestigious Fighter Weapons School. Now he's here to share his expertise with you.

How in the hell did you end up becoming the first USAF fighter pilot to fly the Russian-built MiG-29 Fulcrum as an exchange pilot?

First – a little (actually, a lot of) background. I earned a degree in aerospace engineering in 1979 and worked for Boeing in the Seattle area for two years after graduating from college. I had no real interest in joining the military at the time since I was an Army brat, growing up mostly at Fort Bliss, TX, and probably felt I had done my time. Plus, my dad told me if I ever joined the Army he'd kick my butt. Trust me Dad, an Army career was never on my radar screen. The Army doesn't have cool jets!

I had a life-long fascination with airplanes and had built hundreds of plastic models, eventually moving on to u-control models and then radio-controlled models. I had always wanted to learn to fly myself, but could never afford it. One of my coworkers at Boeing told me about the Boeing Employees Flying Association (BEFA). BEFA had a range of different airplanes at affordable prices to members. For example, a Cessna 152 rented for $19 / hour, including fuel. An instructor was another $10 / hour. I joined BEFA and got my private pilot's license in 1981. The

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. He explains several things I didn’t know, including the limitations of vectored thrust.

[minnesota_bound]

Even us non pilots see the comparison to the F-111 and F-35
I guess it was just to spread out some money to the states and not to build the best fighter to defend the USA with.

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If you had to fly any fighter into an air combat arena today, including an operational F-35A as an option, what would it be?

The F-22. It’s a better jet than the F-35. It can carry at least as much, further and faster. If it was up to me I’d cancel the F-35 and start building more Raptors. A common counter to that is the cost to restart the F-22 assembly line. How much does one pig cost? Another is that the F-35 program is too far along. Yep, let’s just keep paying for a poorly-managed, overly expensive fighter that has three versions that make any one version less than it could be. Can you say F-111? That the F-35’s avionics are better than the F-22’s; how about a Raptor upgrade? I’d also build more advanced versions of the F-15 and F-16.

[spetznaz]

Thank you for a very interesting article. The comments on the F-35 were also very interesting.