Luckily for me, he’s my Dad and a legend in the Indian Air Force....it’s awesome to hear him speak about the Mig 21, which I have grown up with and seeing my dad do things with it that left us in Awe.....😊

This took me back to 1985 when I was so very fortunate to have got posted the 32 Sqn with Suren sir as the CO! I was then a Pilot Officer, the junior most officer rank in the Indian Air Force, now dispensed with. Those were the very best years of my life as a fighter pilot. Suren sir's enthusiasm - "josh" as we call it was infectious and imbibed in us a similar gung ho attitude so very essential in this game. What I learnt about flying the MiG21 from him put in good stead throughout my flying career. And the best part was that he was as good a human being as he was a fighter pilot. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this podcast. He sounds just as he did 35 years ago!

Can we just appreciate the dude's absolute unit of a mustache 😂

One of my closest friend.. (Bundle) Tyagi Sir.. one of India's finest IAF pilot.. I have seen him in close proximity of suiting up for a sortie,, taking off,, and doing a perfect landing (with hardly any puff of tire friction).. and still he is even more a better human being. But his life's credit should also go to Shalini madam ( my Benji).. God bless you both.. India is proud of a very humble son who made us proud..

I think India has helped us learn more about Soviet/Russian aircraft than any other country. Gotta respect the balls their pilots have.

As I left the USAF back in the 90's as an F-15C pilot, I was lucky enough to get a job as a demo/sales/instructor pilot for a company that sold MiG 15/17/19/21 aircraft to rich idiots in Nevada. I spent many mostly happy hours flying these planes over the desert, and even dogfighting my fellow instructors. What an amazing time of my life! The - 21 was everyone's favorite. A truly awesome plane, especially considering its age.

4900 hours..... That is about 200 days in the sky, in fighter jets. WOW

I couldn’t agree more to the statement “India is a beautiful country with beautiful people!”….. I live in the US, half of my doctors are from India. Also, in my experiences, Indians hold their children to very very high standards of education and drive for accomplishments. I would imagine the Indian Air Force does a very good job with the equipment they have.

Oh dang, another foreign aircraft! Please do more, it's fascinating to hear more from other countries' fighter pilots!

While listening to this interview the third time today, I realised the gravity of that loop over the enemy runway. This unit of a man pulled a loop over the bomb riddled runway and then proceeds to ask his wingman to do a loop as well. He must have thought "sorry for bombing your runway. Here is a personal airshow to cheer you up" 😂

The Mig-21!!! After flying this plane in DCS world, I've become a huge fan of the Mig-21! This plane was so much more fun to fly than I ever anticipated. I'm super excited that we get a whole episode dedicated to it.

This dude is amazing. One of the most entertaining shows yet. No way he's actually 78.

I'd love to hear about the MIG-25!

I'm listening to this while flying the mig 21 in DCS!!!!!

He spoke of Rakesh Sharma, I've met that guy in person!

TABLE OF CONTENTS Listeners' Questions 00:07:00 - What is the long protruding part in the back of Su-27 and its derivatives' fuselage? 00:08:15 - BVR vs WVR air combat in the future 00:10:52 - Can AC-130 operate using unprepared airstrips? MiG-21 Interview 00:14:29 - Guest introduction 00:20:20 - What was the plane designed to do? 00:22:44 - What does it do well? 00:26:18 - The variants 00:31:21 - The variable cone 00:33:02 - Specifics of the delta wing 00:38:01 - World-wide use 00:39:29 - Why does it look the way it does? 00:41:24 - What armament does it carry? 00:42:54 - Aircraft performance 00:44:22 - Difficulty of recovery from a sink 00:44:55 - Personal maximums of the guest in the aircraft 00:45:40 - An attempt to go to an altitude way beyond aircraft's limitations 00:47:11 - Maximum Gs 00:47:43 - Strengths & weaknesses 00:48:03 - Visibility from the cockpit 00:48:41 - Short landing roll 00:51:13 - Lack of smoke from the engine 00:51:29 - Maneuverability 00:51:36 - Small visual and radar profile 00:52:58 - Floating flaps 00:53:35 - Where would the listener have heard of this aircraft before? (news, movies, etc.) 00:54:13 - Do you have a particularly good sea story while flying it? 01:05:09 - The story behind the call sign 01:08:55 - Alcohol-cooled radar 01:10:13 - Taxiing MiG-21 and use of the inverted attitude indicator 01:11:33 - Blind spots 01:14:08 - Comparison to other aircraft 01:14:58 - Choice of MiG-21 over MiG-19 01:15:36 - About the Indian fighter combat school 01:17:33 - Kind of tactics Indian Airforce use 01:18:49 - What could be new fighter aircraft for India 01:21:16 - How MiG-21 is kept relevant against generation 4 fighters 01:22:39 - What was done to improve reliability of MiG-21 01:23:37 - Unique strengths of MiG-21 in BFM

Everybody else: let’s make planes go as fast as missiles. Artem Mikoyan: lets put wings and a cockpit on a missile.

God what a legend and what a stashe. And Vincent, you're such a great interviewer! Each and every time I'm impressed by both your guest, yourself and your co-hosts, the quality and curiosity of the listener questions.

What a fun guy. He greeted us with a laugh😂

How is it I’m half this guys age, and I have half his energy?

New meaning to the term launch and leave! What a great segment; that you just kind of stood back and let him go is a testament to your interviewing skills. What an elegant individual - I could list to Bundal all day. And with all do respect the Air Marshall, I choose to believe every word that Bundal said!

Well he certainly is a character. What a great interview.

What a wonderful Podcast ! A treat to listen to for Aviation Enthusiasts. We have to put you in touch with some retired Su-30 MKI, Hunter, Gnat, Sea Hawk, Alize & Marut pilots who have taken Air frames to combat during the various wars that we have fought !

Hahaha man, what an interview. Probably the episode with most laughs involved, right there with the F-117 episode with Robson. Great stuff as always.

Great inerview Jell-O - he seemed so young, vibrant, and excited to talk to you about the aircraft, he truly loved the fishbed :)

This is my favorite episode. I could be biased, I admit.

Wow, I enjoyed this one! One thing I realized while listening is that the love of aviation - especially among Fighter Pilots and their machines - really is universal. Many thanks to Air Commodore “Bundal” Tyagi for his insight and Air Commodore Massand for returning. Do you know what we need more of in the U.S., Jell-O? “Air Commodores”. 😎

Wow! I really enjoyed him. Listening to both of you laughing made me laugh too. I wore a smile the rest of the way. What a great guy!

I love the Indian pilots!

I am very fortunate that I know Tyagisir personally. Very gentle and kind personality. Tyagisir's stories and experiences always inspired me.

What a glorious mustache!

Try contact some pilots from the Czech Republic, our military included Mig-15, Mig-17, Mig-19, Mig-21, Mig-23, Suchoj su-22, Suchoj su-25.Our jets are famos too there are Let l-29 delfín, l-39 albatros. And our brothers over at the slovakian army are using mig-29 to this day. Great episode as ever. You are doing the best job.

An hour and forty minutes, yesss. My wish has been granted, longer episodes!!

What a wonderful beautiful spirit Air Commodore Tyagi has. This a man I’d love to meet and visit with.

I like Harsih's answer about bvr and wvr. The ideal of perfect bvr is essentially disbelief in the realities of the combat environment, that weather or equipment or pilot mistakes won't interact negatively with the intended order of battle. Or that two perfectly stealthed aircraft won't fly into brawling range by accident. Or that it will work and missiles will abruptly useless. It's manifest contradictions from start to finish.

He said 500kg bomb... that is 1000lbs. To get a 1000lbs bomb within 11 yards (~10 meters) of target on a MiG-21 is very impressive.

I have grew up seeing Sir as a chief guest and on the airforce ground since my childhood. I didn't think I'll end up listening to the entire podcast just because I am not used to listening podcasts. However, I enjoyed listening to the podcast and the credit goes to Mrs. Tyagi and Sir alike. Had it not been for her as our DOE (Director of Education) who took pains and efforts to take us to the airforce grounds and educating us on the aircrafts as well as showing us that marvelous Suryakiran airshow, I wouldn't have been able to follow the podcast or even enjoy it. The podcast clearly reflects Sir's passion and love for Mig 21 (first India aircraft that flew faster than sound is what I remember a pilot commenting on it when we were attending the airforce day, I could be wrong). The podcast was enlightened by Sir's humor and immense knowledge on it. He really comes out to be the master of the aircraft as a whole. I didn't believe that Jaguars and Mirages would fall behind this underdog aircraft in some aspects making me fall in love with it even more. Thanks to the podcast as well as Sir Suren Tyagi for this! I feel pride having known Sir and Ma'am for 25 years.

The IAF has had a very interesting mix of western/Eastern block aircraft, so awesome

My wishlist next Su-30MKI, MiG-25, MiG-23/27, Jaguar. Hushkit has an amazing interview of a mig25 pilot in his website please check it out and if you can contact the pilot for a podcast that would be amazing !

A very nice interview Vincent !! I was very thrilled to hear ' TYAGI SIR' as we call him.I am very lucky to have met him !! Well i saw Tyagi Sir when he was the chief guest at the Independence Day. He has a charismatic personality and ofcourse his oratory skills are exceptional! The children( students) love his mustache and are always inspired by his talks. While narrating his flying experiences , and the discipline of the Defence Forces especially the Indian Air Force, the students ( there were 4500 students when he addressed them) some of them had already decided to join the Defence Forces. His words *DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR* and *MOTHERLAND BEFORE SELF* echoed in the air for a long time . The naara of BHARAT MATA KI JAI by him fills the air with patriotism!! Rightly said,his energy and josh is infectious. Here he has encapsulated his complete flying career in this interview.It seemed as if he was reliving every moment of it. Though only his voice was heard, we could feel the pride of being a part of Indian Air Force !! I will always remember this line which he said on the Republic Day,with his uniforn and ranks he stood on the podium and gave the definition of SAVIDHAAN that is CONSTITUTION... I quote " On 26 Jan 1950 all the holy books that is The Gita ,The Quran, The Bible , The Gurugranth Sahib.....all merged into one book called The Indian Constitution! And so remember children , we are Indian first!!" *TOTAL RESPECT SIR*

The nose of the mig 21 inspired the SR71 sonic cone design. My all respect to all the great minds who inspired each other's work.❤️

It's so cool to me that have the ability to do podcasts on soviet aircraft like this! Shout out to India. Shame there's basically no chance you'll be able to do one on the PRC J-20, at least not in the next two decades or so....I want to hear about those canards!

Would it be possible to eventually get someone from India to speak on the HAL Tejas? Given that it's a plane that has had a very lengthy development and is an indigenous design that only recently reached Initial Operational Capability it would be interesting to hear from pilots who have flown it.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooow this is awesome. One of the few planes I did not expect to get a breakdown.

It is great that we got a podcast about MiG-21, and the Air Commodore is definitely have great insides and and experience (including combat) regarding this plane -- probably among the best in the world today. But I have to say, I am sometimes struggling to understand the accent and obviously so does the host, so I wish he would speak a little slower. Still, it was great, thank you!

A fantastic interview crew, was not expecting a video interview on the venerable Fishbed.

My weekend is made, thank you Vincent!

Outstanding episode, one of my favourites!

I think Harish Masand was the AOC (Air Officer in Command, I think) of the Lohegaon Air Force Station in the late 1990s... I was a school kid there... That was my achievement at the time... 😂 He was transferred in to take the place of a person called Chandrashekhar who had perished in a Mig-29 crash a short while ago... Allegedly, he had tried to save the aircraft, but couldn't... I was a witness to his funeral procession from my house's balcony... ahh... The good times watching those guys throw the Mig-29s and Su-30 into some maneuvers... We were regularly called to the airfield to watch those maneuvers... Infact, our school was just beside the airfield, so even if we weren't called, we used to get daily shows for free... Having all the glass panes and crockery at home rattled by those super loud Russian engines... Smokey engines... But hot damn, the cobra maneuvers... Good times...

Tyagi Sir - Born to Fly🚀.... proud moment for all of us as we know his family personally.....

Fantastic talk with one of THE legends of IAF. Thank You.

That was really good . Thank you. Very entertaining. What an awesome bloke. So much enthusiasm.

Wow! What a character. Great interview!

Very iconic jet, with a "strong personality". Thanks to sims like DCS, we can have a faint idea of how it felt to handle it in combat, it's nice to see we may finally have some worthy missions. Hopefully they'll include the wonderful sound fix by Nin, and who knows, perhaps one day address the long-lived issues like underwhelming AB effects and funky cockpit switches. But above all, to revive the interest, we need a proper campaign for this wonderful module! It's a puzzle why we never had one.

Nice one, Next one flanker, ideally SU 30 MKI

Made my day! Thanks guys!

Great and formidable guest, thanks.

Bring on IAF wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman,who shot down PAK F16 in Mig 21,last I checked he was a training group captain.Fun staff thanks

This plane is like a Gold medal in your record book

Thanks for interview. It was very interesting!

Talking about excellent rate of climb: My father flew the CF-104(G) out of CFB Cold Lake from 1969-72. He was an airshow demonstration pilot for the summers of 70-71. Gave it up in 72 when I was born in June on the base. The CF-104D (2 seater - father was an IP) would go from brake release to 45,000 ft in 90 seconds. This was not a zoom climb and I do believe the jet had wingtip tanks (obviously). Angle of climb got shallower and shallower as altitude increased. The rear seat took away 1500 lbs of fuel. The ejection seat was close to 500 lbs. The D was "light" as he said. He said the initial flight for pilots in the CF-104D transitioning from the F-86 Sabre was "eye-watering".

Time to listen to an amazing podcast!

That intro!!! Awesome music!

I really enjoyed listening to this episode, keep up the amazing work

Great man, great aircraft, great podcast, great channel!!!

Hearing about hard facts and specs is great but the personal experience is also really important

Great interview...lots of interesting anecdotes... very enjoyable

fell asleep with youtube on auto play and woke up to this, great way to start the day

This is so cool!

Can you do a “Mig month” please And keep up the great work

Wow. Every podcast is great. Thank you.

Oh this is a very pleasant surprise.

This interview was full of fun, enjoyed a lot Bring more indian pilots specially Sukhoi 30 pilot

This man's stache is awesome.

hi Vincent! Thanks for conducting this podcast! It was amazing! I was wondering if you could do a podcast with an IAF pilot who would have flown the indigenous Indian fighter-bomber of the 60s, 70s and 80s called the "Marut". thanks!

What an old Jet!!!! OLD IS GOLD

You have access to all these badass pilots. I wish we could get them rigged into DCS so we could see them fly. Cest la vie

Thank you for using my comment Gelo! Especially on this episode, my grandfather was an F-4 pilot and lost his life in Laos during the war (both aircrew were never recovered). In his war diary he talks about many mig cap missions and on one mission he talks about spotting a Mig-21 but they did not engage. Great vid!

Great!

Loved every bit of it. Can you please try someone who tried their hands on the SU 30MKI ? Thanks.

Randomly landed here but i really enjoyed it..... Please do more episodes........very fantastic discussion..... 👍

If possible you should try to find someone to interview who flew F104s or Skyraiders. Those planes always have interested me and I couldn't imagine some stories from pilots..

I salute you sir ❤

The new mig concept stealth looks cool.

The Indian Air Force again! Nice :D (And btw Jell-O,if you ever feature the JASDF/ROKAF(Basically either the Japanese air force or the South Korean Air Force),I WILL send you a case of beer or a bottle of whiskey!(just need to figure the logistics out of that though))

can you please ask these legendary pilots to fly on dcs with you ,plzzzzzz it will be a dream come true ,plz plz plz

I like the interview. There is one thing to note. Yuri Gagarin was the first Soviet cosmonaut, but he was not an outstanding fighter pilot, this is a well-known fact.

Good old Balalaika.

Turn on the subtitles. I couldn't understand half of what this guy was saying at first but KZfaq's auto generated CC actually does a really good job. This guys a legend and I would like to hear more global episodes like this.

When I was a kid here in Poland in the 1980s we used to travel to the coast for our summer vacation and we actually saw them quite often doing fly overs. I was both quite scared and excited, beacuse they really looked mean with their delta wings. Our air force pilots nick named them the "pencil".

Along with the MiG 17 and MiG 19, it could be argued that NFWS Topgun, was put in place because of the effectiveness of the MiG-21 during the Vietnam War against The U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

Here are two videos of a privately owned MiG-21R here in the United States. Many thanks to the Fighter Pilot Podcast for their contributions! Workout: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fLp9ma-S2dm1hKM.html Flight Prep: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kJuaZtBpmtnLoYE.html

A beautiful aircraft. Could you ask Indian pilots next time about the recent engagement between the F16 and the Mig21? And although the following would be kinda tough, could you rope in someone who has flown the Tejas?

It seems the Mig-21 could be considered -maybe- Ivan's greatest suscess in the fighter jet arena. I think I watched a video where our experts concluded it was a remarkable engenieering achivement... But then again, our Fighter's still reing supreme!

I think the Sukhoi Su-9 Fishpot looked like a slightly scaled up MiG-21 Fishbed.

I have a great respect for the MIG21 unlike the western definition of it; single-engine, single-seat, single-use fighter.

With the development of stealth and the speeds involved short range dogfights aren't going away anytime soon.

Yeah, it is interesting to hear more about Russian airplanes as well!

1:35:20 - Can we have those list of sayings on a musings page at sometime Jello?

Suren stated it was a 500kg bomb, that is a 1100 pound bomb and not 500 lbs one.