Just read about this: Happened about 6:00 a.m. EDT, or 1 p.m. local time… A Greek F-16 was dispatched to intercept a Turkish fighter jet that Greece claims violated its airspace. The jets engaged in a “mock dogfight,” whatever that means (no weapoons fired I guess, just gesturing?). Anyhow, the two collided over the Aegean Sea. The Turkish pilot was rescued, and the Greek coast Guard is still looking for the F-16 pilot. No word on what type of fighter the Turkish pilot was flying.
Apparently, these “mock dogfights” occur almost daily between the 2 rival countries, who still can’t agree on airspace boundaries, as well as the boundaries on the Mediterrranean island of Cypress. For those of you who don’t know, Greece controls half of Cypress, and Turkey controls the other half. These 2 contries have never gotten along really well. Ever see the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding?” The joke about the angry grandma who HATES the Turks next door isn’t far from the truth.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how relations between these 2 countries will be affected. They had been getting along okay, for them anyway. I know CNN has reported this; I’ll try to get a link.
Here it is:
[cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05 ... index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/23/greece.crash/index.html)
Not much info that I didn’t already share though.
I am reminded of a movie that came out back in the late 80’s
Charlie: Eh lieutenant, what were you doing there?
Maverick: Communicating. Keeping up foriegn relations. You know, giving him the bird!
Goose: You know… the finger!
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Maverick: Too close for missles, I’m switching to… OOOOooops! Oh $#!+
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I feel the need… The need to bleed!
Y’know, I the thought of the Tomcat upside down w/ the birdie, the Polaroid, the whole 9 yards actually DID pop into my head when I imagined what a “mock” dogfight was. 
That’s the definition of “shadowing”. Classic shadowing would be when US air assets shadowed Soviet era bombers sniffing out the DEW line during the Cold War. US crews would often hold up the latest Playboy centerfold for the Soviet crew’s edification and enlightenment.
A bad case of shadowing would be the Chinese fighter that collided with a US Navy P3 Orion a few years ago.
In mock dogfights one attempts to get a radar “lock” on the other aircraft, or get into their six for a gun run. Everything one would do in a real dogfight short of pickling one off the rail!
Regards,
James
I still swear that Mig looked JUST like a T-5.
…
The Ruskies had great spies! See if you can spot the difference between a MiG 28 and an F5E.
By golly - I think one of the engineers was a spy for Muther Russia!
…
The Mig has a big red star on the tail and “No Step” in cyrillic lettering on the wing?
That’s an easy one!
The F5 was built in the western portion of the Northrop plant while the MIG28 was built in the eastern portion.
Regards,
James
BTW, the latest news reports about the collision between these two aircraft states that they were “shadowing” each other, not engaged in a mock dogfight.
Given the bad blood between Greece and Turkey for about the last 5000 years or so, I seriously doubt that these two pilots were engaged in anything as relatively harmless as a “mock” dogfight. More likely they were having a testosterone contest.
Regards,
James