The Israeli airforce "French era "

[hyair]

A Story told by an Israeli Mirage pilot . I just arrived to the squadron ready for a training flight and the guys told me there is war in the air with the Syrians =
take a plane and fly. This is the moment that every pilot is waiting for. Within
a short time we were air born toward the sea of the GALILEE at 15000 feet making patrols for some 20 minutes. All of a sudden the ground controller called us saying that er have a target at low altitude. We headed to the north and we could observe 4 MIG 21 in silver color and the wing edges colored in red. The leader told us to make a split S -to turn on the back and to enter 6 o'clock of the targets. I flew with one eye on the leader and the other on the migs. the leader divided the targets and pronounced we are going on the eastern and I saw him taking number 3 so I took number 4 which was the most eastern . At a range of 1000 meter I checked the 2 30 mm canons to avoid surprise while in battle and I jettisoned the two big fuel tanks under the wings - the mirage gained a better maneuverability . I came close behind the mig and had to really stop at 200 meter distance . The mig did a left turn toward Damascus. When I came to a position of the piper on the cockpit I fired a burst from the 2 30 mm and immediately observed big flame jumping from the mig , I couldn't turn a way and went directly inside the flame ! The mirage vibrated a bit but I could handle him. I checked the controls and the engine and they were fine. The canopy was dark from smoke but the wind cleared it slowly and I gained back the outside vision,
I told the controller about the shoot down and he replied congratulations and come back home.
I attached here a photo that shows the black mirage after landing in the left side of the picture.

Yair

[hyair]

The Mirage and Mig - 21 were long term rivals in the middle East and fought
endless dog fights from mid 1960's till mid 1970's with the Mirage scoring an astonishing kill ratio of 1:15 !!!
Some more images of the two in 1:48 scale - the Mirage is repainted Mali model and the Mig-21 is from Ecardmodels .

Yair