About this episode

Diego Salgues shares his experiences flying the Mirage 2000 and discusses various aspects of military aviation.

Diego Salgues spent 30 years in the French Air Force and flew variants of the Mirage 2000 for an extraordinary 26 years. In Part 1, he retraces the demanding route from gliders, the Epsilon and Tucano to the Alpha Jet and finally the Mirage 2000, sharing candid stories about fighter-pilot training, squadron culture and the human cost of military aviation. He then takes us deep inside the Mirage’s fly-by-wire controls and explains how its delta wing, low-speed handling and vertical performance shaped BFM against aircraft including the MiG-29 and F-16.

People in this episode

Host: Steve Davies

Guest: Diego Salgues

Topics covered

• military aviation
• fighter pilot training
• Mirage 2000
• squadron culture
• fly-by-wire controls
• aircraft performance

Keywords

• Mirage 2000
• fighter pilot
• military aviation
• fly-by-wire
• squadron culture
• aircraft performance
• MiG-29
• F-16

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: French Air Force

Products: Mirage 2000, Epsilon, Tucano, Alpha Jet, MiG-29, F-16

More episodes of 10 Percent True - Tales from the Cockpit

• Hunting Shahed Drones in a Mirage 2000 [CLIP] · September 4, 2026 · 9 min
• “I Woke Up Inverted” — G-LOC in a Mirage 2000 | Diego Salgues (Part 2 Clip) · August 28, 2026 · 14 min
• F-15, F-16, Weapons School & Aggressors | Dave “Khan” Carr · August 1, 2026 · 1h 55m
• How Australia Turned the F/A-18A Hornet into a Killer [CLIP] · July 31, 2026 · 11 min
• How to Dogfight the F/A-18 Hornet | RAAF Fighter Combat Instructor Explains · July 17, 2026 · 16 min
• How Australia Flew the F/A-18 Before Link 16, JHMCS and AMRAAM · July 10, 2026 · 13 min

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