The armchair experts are railing, “Why is it taking so long for the Ukrainian pilots to transition from their Soviet Migs to NATO’s General Dynamics F-16s?”
If you can bear with me, I’ll try to explain why. In our driveway we have three vehicles: the 2007 Mazda pickup I arrived with, the 1995 VW Eurovan my wife already had, and a 2009 Nissan Cube that was the offspring of our marriage. In so many features, they’re all different: location and operation of gear shifter, windows, door locking. four-way flashers, refuelling and cruise-control.
The Mazda’s gear shifter is on the right of the steering column and the indicator is on the panel. So is the, the VW’s, but the Cube’s is on the floor, as is the indicator.
To open and close the windows of the Mazda, each has to be cranked, cranked, cranked… The VW’s windows are push-button, but they can only operate one at a time. On the Cube, all four by the driver, or the passengers’ individual ones.
To lock and unlock the Mazda, both doors must be done manually and separately. For the VW, all four doors are done by a one-key click via the exterior slot on either door. Except the one sliding door. The Cube can be locked and unlocked from over 300 feet away!
The button for the four-way flasher of the Mazda is almost inaccessible over the steering column and its indicator light is on the instrument panel. The VW’s flasher indicator is a clicking and flashing light on the steering column. The Cube indicator is just an un-lit clocking button on the dashboard.
Refuelling each is different. When the Mazda gets thirsty, just open the flap on the port side. It can’t be locked. For the VW, do the same, but you need a key to remove the cap. Cube? Find the lever under the dash, then scurry to the passenger side of the car.
When driving the 401, cruise control is handy! Unfortunately, on the Mazda my mind and right foot are the only cruise-control components available. On the VW, press the end of the column on the left side of the steering wheel. Tap the brake pedal to disengage. The Cube requires a different procedure: press the ‘on’ button, then hit another above it. To disengage, tap a third one.
I think you can now realize why it’s so time-consuming to transition from the Russian aircraft being used by the Ukrainians to the NATO-supplied F-16s. By necessity it’s taking months of time, many hours cramming over flight manuals and intense practice aerial dogfights with allied aircraft posing as enemy.
In actual combat, there’s not a second to spare in decision-making. There’s no time for the pilot to be ruminating like this: “Let’s see: to engage the afterburner, the instructions are on pages 45-47…to widen the radar coverage I turn the knob clock-wise…or is it the other way? Aha! To arm the Sidewinder air-to-air missile, it might be that button over there…”
In combat, all thought has to be instantaneous. All actions have to be the product of muscle memory. There’s no room for pause or error. That’s why the Ukrainian pilots are in a long process of training, not just kicking the tires, lighting the fire and flying off into the wild blue yonder, to blast Ivan out of the sky.
Then, the real thing: Slava Ukrainia!
