On 31 Aug 2004 06:44:12 -0700, (Rich) wrote:

he could be fully qualified to fly F-102s even though
jet fighters take a lot of skill and intelligence to pilot?

Actually, I don't believe that's true. About 15 years ago I worked
with a guy that had at one time helped train middle-east pilots to fly
american built fighters. Unlike most US pilots, these guys got to be
pilots not because they were qualified, but because they were royalty
(there's a lot of royalty in the middle east). The stories he told
were great, and the bottom line was while it does take some skill to
fly, it doesn't take a lot.

Read Richard Bach's _Stranger to the Ground_. In it, he says flying a jet
fighter (F-84F in his case) is so easy that the Air Force should train a
boy scout and a grandmother to fly them at air shows.

Ron Wanttaja