By all common sense rule he should have moved away his aircraft, if at all possible, from any inhabited parts of the land and ejected. He chose to fight and risk his life to save his Su-35S. Absolutely amazing feat!
Saker Message:
That is one of many things I admire most about Russians.They are quick to find answers to problems they encounter (the people,not so much the government which is extremely slow until almost the last minute and then act quickly). From readings I see that has been a Russian trait throughout their history.
Carrier landings are said to be different, and perhaps more difficult. But your readers might want to compare this flight mishap with the F-35 that crashed on the Carl Vinson carrier:
https://avia-pro.net/news/pervaya-v-mire-zhenshchina-pilot-istrebitelya-f-35-razbila-samolyot-v-pervom-zhe-polyote
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/01/25/f-35-crash-off-carl-vinson-ships-5th-major-mishap-2-months.html
5 mishaps in 2 months and they aren’t even at war with a peer.
Stick to harassing the Third World.
I think I was more anxious than the pilot well done !
The drag shoot sure came in handy. Excellent job……I wonder if he was a factory check pilot. He seemed to have a few tricks up his sleeve.
I think he may have been. Though, it is the first thing you would do if facing an FCS failure that constantly pulls the aircraft up. So instead of facing stalls, he kept it going in circles which gave time to try and diagnose and try to resolve the issue. Amazing! Many pilots would have come to the point of ejection. Brave! He also was facing sustained G’s most of the time he was working.
I was an ejection seat/LOX guy in an A6e Intruder squadron aboard Nimitz 76-82. My seats never had a save, but we lost 3 planes and aircrews owing to trying to save the plane, two of them at sea, one crew punching out too late, out of the seats’ envelope. Happened to F14 guys, too. Glad this worked out. Hopefully his seats have vectored motors, he may have had some slack, ours then in the Martin Bakers did not. Too close to the ground with a heavy sink rate ruined a lot of guy’s days.