Cash sbortage grounds Russian pilots

Not good news, and this is sad.

From Avia.ru

Cahttp://www.avia.ru/cgi/news/news.cgi?action=geten&id=1042463116

Cash shortage grounds Russian pilots
[13 Jan 2003] Russian air force pilots are losing their skills because the military’s cash shortage has left them with just a fraction of the required flight training, a news agency reported Monday.
The air force leaders are long-range bomber pilots, some of whom log between 50 and 70 flight hours a year, while most fighter pilots spend just 10 to 20 hours in the air, the Interfax-Military News Agency reported, quoting an unidentified Defense Ministry official.

Pilots of U.S. and other western air forces must have a minimum of some 200 flight hours a year to be considered ready for action, the official said.

In another sign of the Russian air force’s decline, less than 60 percent of its aircraft fleet is fit to fly, the agency reported.

/Business Day/