Elite PLA pilot wins "Golden Helmet" award twice

The second PLA Air Force "Golden Helmet" award, a 10-day air war competition by fighter jets finally came to an end on Nov. 29 and 11 air force pilots stood out from 108 elites and won the "Golden Helmet" award.

It is noteworthy that Jiang Jiayi, one of winners of the first "Golden Helmet" award and chief of a squadron of Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC), won the award again and became the first man winning the "Golden Helmet" award twice.

　　The concept of actual combat is strengthened

The second "Golden Helmet" award was organized and implemented according to the order that first using the third generation and the same types of fighter jets and then the second generation and different types of fighters.

Compared with the first "golden helmet" award, this year's competition included the fight between different types of aircraft, the safety distance between two aircraft in unrestricted air combat was reduced by 50 meters, and "face-to-face" peer reviews of pilots' performances were added.

"We cannot win continuous victories without advanced guiding theories," Jiang said. At the end of last year, he realized that fellow pilots had learned "interference" in the first "golden helmet" competition. In order to win in this year's completion, he must combine "attack" with "interference."

　　Trying to respond quickly enough

Jiang said that pilots mainly rely on weapons to win beyond visual range (BVR) combat, but on their techniques to win close combat. "When two fighter planes are only over 10 kilometers away from each other, and the relative speed is 1,800 kilometers per hour or 1,900 kilometers per hour, the pilots only have slightly more than 10 seconds to respond," he said. Whether they can make right responses in 10 seconds determines the outcome of the combat.

"In order to respond quickly enough, pilots need to practice hard every day. It is not enough to just know about or be familiar with weapons. Let it be your conditioned reflex. Only when you respond quickly enough can you compete against ace pilots," Jiang said.

　　Paying tribute to 'backstage workers'

"I want to say thanks to my team because I could not have achieved this without my team," Jiang said at the "golden helmet" awards ceremony on Nov. 29.

The "team" he mentioned includes fellow pilots with whom he practice air-to-ground and air-to-air combat as well as his navigators.

A navigator is a person who works out the direction for an aircraft and guides the pilot's action. After the information secured by radar is sent to the command post, the navigator should quickly judge the situation facing the pilot, understand his or her tactical intent, and send certain key information to the pilot without any delay in air combat when seconds matter.

Generally speaking, it takes a navigator three to five years to get mature, and pilots should consider themselves lucky if their partners are experienced navigators. Jiang's navigators are Liu Bo and Nie Tianchun. They practice and live together, and can "read" one another's mind through eye contact or brief hints. "As if they were sitting in the back of my aircraft," Jiang said.

　　Translating pressure into momentum

As the youngest winner in the first "golden helmet" award, Jiang had attracted great attention and been under considerable pressure over the past year. Deep down, he hoped to prove his excellence again. "Show your techniques, and enjoy the fun of air combat. I was wondering how much progress I had made over the past year through difficult and high-intensity targeted training and how much progress that other pilots had made," Jiang said.