It’s pretty awesome when your stable of contributors includes not one, nor two, but four U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilots. Here we have one demonstrating what we call AHC, or Advanced Handling Characteristics. It had been a while since he’d been in the jet and it was time to get back in the saddle. This clip is a couple of years old, but no less awesome!
Good afternoon, Fightersweep Fans! Once again, some great homegrown footage is coming at you, this time from sunny SoCal and MCAS Miramar. This was one of my flights to regain currency in the F/A-18C Hornet after being out of the cockpit for a little while. Although it was recorded a few years ago, it still has got some great footage of getting “back in the saddle.”
The SWOLF departure at Miramar gets me to the W-291 Warning Area, an airspace off the coast of California and Mexico heavily utilized for military training. The video highlights a Split-S and Immelman prior to the VFR landing on runway 24R.
In the case of the Immelman, I decided to keep flying in the vertical longer than usual instead of making it a pure half-loop. What good are aerobatics in a fighter if you aren’t going to use all that thrust! Don’t worry, though, this video shows just a small fraction of that flight, so you know your tax dollars went to good use.
Sit back, relax, and soak in some Hornet aerobatics!