Training of combat aircraft pilots
The units of 98th Aviation Brigade of the Serbian Armed Forces at Ladjevci airport near Kraljevo continue with training of Serbian Armed Forces combat aircraft pilots.First solo flights at the J-22 "Eagle" assault aircraft were performed by Major Aleksandar Gajic and Captain Igor Djordjevic, two of the group of five pilots who are being trained for this type of aircraft. They are the first pilots of the Serbian Armed Forces who flew alone in "Eagle" after more than a ten year break. Two of their colleagues, Captains, had their first flights yesterday, with their teachers, in a double-seater variant "Eagle NJ-22", which marked the beginning of the flying part of their retraining to assault aircraft pilots.
The independent flight on the "Eagle" was preceded by theoretical instructions and flight training that lasted nine hours, as well as the
control flight where the flight instructors provide evaluation whether a candidate is ready to take off for the first time alone in a single-seater. Then follows a continuation of training in navigation and night flying at the end of which new pilots are ready to move on to training for combat action on the only special-purpose assault aircraft within the composition of the Air Force and Air Defence of the Serbian Armed Forces.The retraining is entrusted to the only AF&AD unit that uses this type of aircraft, 241st Fighter-Bomber Squadron "Tigers" from the 98th Aviation Brigade.
"The task of 98th Aviation Brigade, under these conditions of very restricted resources, was to prioritize and to determine the top five pilots among those that we have available, and they are to justify our confidence and come to this moment which will certainly remain in their memory all their life", Colonel Aleksandar Bjelic, Commander of 98th Brigade said congratulating younger colleagues after their first solo flight.Concurrently with the first flights of pilots on the "Eagle", training in the combat use of "Gamma" helicopters (armed
version of "Gazelle") was continued by missile attacks on targets on the ground using guided missiles 9M114M "Maljutka" by generation of helicopter pilots who have started their combat training on the "Gamma" this autumn.Yesterday, members of the 714th Antitank Helicopter Squadron “Shadows” fired at targets on "Pasuljanske livade" all-service training ground with two helicopters in pair and independently.
