Fortunately, I could finally fly at the end of the afternoon but it was no more an interception mission but a close air combat exercice : 1 v 1 v 1 (one against one against one), a bit more demanding
After takeoff runway 05 in tight formation and we crossed the G5 airway towards the training area (TSA) of the Bernese Alps. My pilot was happy showing me how close to the Mirage leader he could fly ; I took the opportunity to take some pictures. After entering the TSA, we performed the "Warm Up": a 180° 4 G turn followed by a second 180° 7 G turn to check the systems and the guy in back
, everything worked perfectly. The Mirage splitted away on 120° diverging headings. Few tens of kilometers away, everyone turned around and we were all rushing over, the fight could begin.As in the two-seater Mirage we had no airborne radar, a tactical controller guided us in giving BRA (bearing, range and altitude) regarding the two adversaries. The tension was rising proportionaly to the fast decreasing distance separating us from the "diaboli" i.e the bogeys , as at that time the Swiss Air Forces was still using the old swiss tactical voice "Bambini" ; our eyes were scanning the sky. "Vista Diaboli" i.e Tally Ho : a Mirage III was flying head on, slightly below us. A quick split S and we were diving behind the bogey
, lot of G, difficult breathing with the anti G compressing the abdomen, the aircraft vibrating but without stalling, ans after some maneuvers, an insisting growling in the earphones showed us that our Sidewinder seeker had found its target 
"finito finito finito" i.e knock it off knock it off knock it off , the first fight was over. Every one splitted up again and we fighted again and again until bingo fuel and RTB to Payerne.Sorry for the quality of the photos taken with a compact Canon Prima with fixed focal length 28/50 mm.
1.
000011590009-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
2.
000011590010-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
3.
000011590022-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
4.
000011590003-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
5.
000011590004-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
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000011590020-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
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000011590019-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
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000011590023-28 par Philippe Rey, sur Flickr
Cheers
