0645 Local, August 8, Operations, NAS Patuxent River, MD

Even a local training flight generated a ton of paperwork, and Harm was taking some extra time to review the takeoff and weight & balance numbers before his first Hornet hop. His instructor didn't make any effort to be discreet while looking over his shoulder to be sure everything was in order. Flashy Gordon walked through the flight release package initialing each page indicating her acceptance of what her pilot under instruction and the flight-planning computer had generated.

The complete package was signed off and handed to the operations specialist who time/date stamped the documents and in essence handed the keys to the designated bird to the crew. Today's bird had logged 1,507.6 hours and just over 1200 cycles in its lifetime. The maintenance log was clear, and no deferred or open items were on the books. In short the jet was ready to fly.

Takeoff weight would be just under 55,000 pounds, and today's flight would be made with only a pair of AIM-9M air-to-air missiles and a centerline fuel tank mounted to external hard points. According to the gun plumber's paperwork 450 rounds of ammunition were available for the Vulcan 20mm internal cannon. It was a very average load out.

Harm very methodically walked around the Hornet completing the preflight inspection before pausing at the bottom of the crew ladder. "Major, do you want to sign off the acceptance, or should I let the crew chief off the hook this morning?"

Reaching for the clipboard looked briefly at Harm. "Sir, can you touch the jet from where you are standing?"

Puzzled Harm immediately replied, "Of course. Why?"

The response with a very chilly, "Where I come from if you can touch the jet rank goes out the window. Do you have a different protocol flying a desk?"

After mentally counting to 10 by fives Harm pointed to the ladder. "Okay Flashy let's saddle up."

0725 Local, August 8, NAS Patuxent River, MD

The pre engine start checklist was dispatched quickly and the Hornet's two GE turbines were lit off. Once the power cart was pulled Harm signaled the crew chief to pull the nose gear chocks and called ground control for taxi instructions.

Ten minutes later working in the alert crew pulled the safety pins on the Sidewinder missiles and flashed a thumps up. Salutes were exchanged, and Slider 501 nosed out of the hot pit and toward the runway.

"Ready?"

"Fly it as briefed Hammer. Let her rip."

"Slider 501 after takeoff fly heading 105 and maintain five thousand. Clear for takeoff."

"501 five thousand, 105, we're on the roll"

Thrust levers were slid past the afterburner gate; both burners flashed into life as the brakes were released, and less than 90 seconds later Hammer reefed the jet into a climbing turn heading for the Atlantic Range training area.

"Slider 501 contact departure on channel 11"

"Channel 11 for departure. Good day!"

Harm pulled the thrust levers aft through the A/B gate the muted growl of the afterburners vanished. To compensate for the power reduction he took a little deck angle off the to maintain best rate of climb speed.

"Pax departure Slider 501 with you out of 3.9 looking for higher"

"Morning 501 climb and maintain FL230. Turn further right to heading of 120. Out of the turn traffic will be a Delta 737 southbound. He should be below you and no factor."

"Roger 230 and 120. We will be looking."

0740 Local, August 8, FL230, Training Area

Aside from the sounds of breathing on the hot mic system, Harm hadn't heard from his instructor since just before takeoff. "You still with me Flashy? It's been awfully quite back there."

"Just enjoying the ride Hammer. When we get into the range fly the mission just as it's written on the card. You will need to clear both ends of the envelope, so let's run the stall and approach to stall series first. That should take us down to about 10,000 feet. We'll do the speed run and zoom climb back to altitude.

"Remember: The Hornet does not have the Tomcat's mission adaptive wing, so it will tend to get sloppy early so stay on top of it."

0750 Local, August 8, Training Area

Putting the Hornet through its paces at the slow end of the envelope was a workout. Accustomed to the Tomcat's habits Harm had to work hard to stay within the performance criteria spelled out in the mission card. The stall series pulled the flight down to just under 11,000 feet, and that's where the speed run started.

"Hammer, go gate and watch that it doesn't want to pitch up when you use the spurs at this speed. At this weight and configuration we are drag limited to about Mach 1.4, so at 1.35 give me a 2g pull and max climb to 17,000 feet."

"Rog"

Slider 501 bumped through the sound barrier easily and actually didn't start to act like it was all done when Harm eased the stick back into a 2g pitch. Control sensitivity was very different in the Hornet and Harm over pitched the jet bumping up to a 2.4g limit. He eased the backpressure and nailed the max climb speed.

Pushing over at 17,000 feet Harm made the prescribed turn back toward the beach before Flashy was heard from again.

"Okay, we've got some coastal stratus below, so let's make one touch and go on the cloud tops. Call the runway elevation 2,000 feet. Fly initial at 3,400 feet and make a 4g left break. I'll call the end of the runway for you on initial."

Before the maneuver could be set up the radio came alive on the range guard channel. "Who's the Hornet in north range?"

"Slider 501," Harm quickly answered.

"Slider, this is T-Bone with a flight of two. Want to play?"

"T-Bone, Slider's Hammer and Flashy out of Pax River, who you?"

"T-Bone and Dogpound out of ACY. You up for 2 v 1? Weapons safe" Translation: T-Bone and Dogpound were Air Force reserve or national guard pilots operating out of Atlantic City; 2 v 1 is a two ship on one aerial engagement, and the weapons safe comment is self explanatory.

Harm glanced quickly at the radar then looked around and didn't come up with his new friends. "Flashy, you got anything?"

"Hammer, we're going to be BINGO fuel real quick. You may want to think about passing this up and heading for the barn." On one hand the instructor in Flashy was counseling caution. The poorly camouflaged fighter pilot in her she was craning her neck looking. "About four o'clock above us."

No additional thought was required. "T-Bone, the floor is 1,000 feet. Fox-2 and guns only. No (AIM-120) AMRAAMs. Fight's on!" With that Slider- 501 jumped into a climbing left turn as the afterburners lit off. Breathing hard against the 4g loads Harm thumbed the radar into the fire control mode and stepped to the more distant of the two aggressors. The Hornet's Raytheon fire control system almost instantly acquired the targets, snapped to the selected one, and announced acquisition with a hard, growling tone in Harm's ears.

"Shoot him in the face NOW," Flashy grunted under the heavy g load. "Then break hard right. We don't have time to mess with this guy."

"Fox-2, Fox-2. (simulated AIM-9 launch well inside the weapon's firing window) missile The South guy is down," Harm rasped on the radio.

In the interim T-Bone bent his F-16C around the corner trying to bring the Hornet into his firing envelope. He wasn't quick enough as the nimble F/A-18 pirouetted into another high "g" maneuver flashing into an Immelman turn to the left. About half way through the reversal the BINGO fuel light flashed onto the heads up display.

"Fight's off. Fight's off. Slider 501's minimum fuel state. Who's up?"

As the F-16s joined up with the Hornet the radio came to life again. "T- Bone is still alive. That was Dogpound you popped. Thanks for the work. Did you say you're out of Pax River?"

"That affirm, and we're bound for the barn for gas. Thanks for the trade!"

The pair of sleek F-16s rocked their wings and broke away. "Semper Fi Slider!" Harm mentally flinched at the Marine Corps reference no doubt triggered by the jet's USMC markings. "That's Anchors Aweigh, at least in the front hole, but thanks for the sentiment. Slider's out and guard is clear."

"Check your fuel state Hammer. We spent a lot of time in burner with those guys, and I really don't want to walk home."

Harm did the math in his head while he was working to get the computer to give him a more detailed solution. Once the bird did the math it came up with a solution similar to Harm's initial read. "We'll be over the bird farm with about 900 pounds. The weather is good, so we should be good to go."

"Hammer, that's an approach and a very tight go around. Do you feel that lucky?"

"Since there was no alert Texaco (tanker support) on this mission board we're lucky by definition. In any case we're going to nail the landing, so it's a non-issue. In fact, I'm buying if we don't have 900 pounds on board when we shut down."

"Your funeral Hammer. Let's go to the barn."

Rather than punching up the autopilot Harm elected to hand fly the return leg enjoying the challenge and the view as they came up on the Maryland coast. Slider 501 was handed off to Pax River approach 65 nautical miles east of the field descending out of 17,600 feet.

"Morning Pax River. Slider 501's with you out 17,000 with Delta (the current NAS Patuxent River automated information about weather and operations)."

The local air traffic controller immediately started to maneuver the Hornet into sequence for landing. "Slider 501 descend and maintain 13,000. Turn right to heading 280 and intercept the Bluewater Arrival and expect an overhead recovery."

"Okay Hammer, don't do the recovery checklist to yourself. Even if you don't have a backseater, do the checklist out loud. It helps get your head in the right place for the recovery."

Harm walked through the checklist completing the final items just as he was being turned over to the Pax River air traffic control tower. "Slider 501 continue descent to 1,900 feet. You're eleven east of the field and cleared for the overhead approach. Tower now on local channel three."

"Slider 501 going to the tower now. Have a good one."

"Rog, good day."

Slider was heading inbound at a little five miles per minute at this point. "Pax River, Slider 501's nine east for the overhead."

"Slider 501's cleared for the overhead maintain 1,500 until the break. Local speed restriction is 240 knots on initial."

Harm thumbed the microphone switch and acknowledged the local controller. "501 cleared for the overhead approach and maintain 240 on initial. Will call the break midfield."

"Roger 501, you're cleared to land."

At 240 knots the Hornet was covering over four miles per minute, and Harm tossed the Bug into a tight left turn pulling just over 4.5 times the force of gravity on entry.

In an overhead approach the landing aircraft initially flies down the centerline of the landing runway at a relatively high speed (in this case 240 nautical miles per hour) at some 1,500 above the ground. At a selected point above the runway the pilot makes a sharp power reduction, rolls (or pitches) his aircraft into a steep turn. The aerodynamic forces generated in the turn, coupled with the reduced power, slows the aircraft and the pilot deploys the necessary amount of flaps and extends the landing gear as the aircraft circles and descends toward the approach end of the runway. Correctly done this maneuver is a smoothly coordinated exercise in speed reduction and aircraft configuration change culminating in a smooth landing.

With a couple of hundred traps (carrier landings) in his sea bag hitting a 11,500-foot long runway that was standing still was a relatively straightforward exercise. Harm nailed the landing and Slider 501 came to a halt a few minutes later under its crew chief's direction with 922 pounds of jet fuel still on the totalizer.

Harm was sitting in the cockpit finishing the mission paperwork when his instructor finished getting unhooked from the jet. Before climbing down Flashy Gordon made it a point to stick her head into the front cockpit to look at the fuel total readout. Harm put his forefinger on the number and turned to look at his instructor getting a grin and a nod before she vanished below the cockpit rail and jumped off the jet.

The walk from flight line to ops shack was quick and without conversation due to the other aircraft operations noise.

"Grab some coffee and a debriefing cubicle on your way back from the head Captain, and I'll be there in a minute." While waiting for his instructor's return Harm mentally flew parts of the just completed mission one more time in his head to see if there were major deficiencies. He didn't see any.

"If I harbored any doubts that you could fly the airplane they're gone," opened the post mission conversation. "You are as smooth with the jet as anyone with a thousand hours in type, but don't let that go to your head. You flew the card very well, but you flew the mission like a Pentagon chair warmer. That will get you killed."

"Hold up for a second. If my memory is on track after flying the entire mission card, we got a 'kill,' hit the fuel return number and aced the landing. Where are the nugget mistakes?"

Flashy knitted her fingers into a tent under her chin and gave her 'student' a long cold stare before responding.

"First mistake: The Atlantic training area is a hot area with Air Force, Navy, and Marine training in progress 24/7 which means it can be an engagement zone at any time. So, wouldn't you, at a minimum, have the jet's radar up in the target acquisition (T/A) mode? If you had been up in the correct mode it would have been a lot harder for a pair of weekend warriors to sneak up on you. If those guys had been hauling AMRAAMs (AIM-120 fire and forget air-to-air missiles with a range of more than 40 miles) you would have been dead meat before you really were in the game.

"You have warrior credentials, but if you don't keep you sword sharp some goofball is going to kill you and that's embarrassing as hell.

"Second mistake: you didn't have good awareness of your fuel state. You had an idea, but didn't have it nailed. The jet will do a lot of that busy work, but you've got to set the data up where it's usable. It took you too many steps to get a number after you got a BINGO indication. If that guy T-Bone had been a little tighter on his wingman and made a more aggressive engagement you would have been confronted with a fight or run decision that had bad implications no matter which way it went.

"Hammer you can fly the jet by yourself. But before you get clear of here you're going to have to convince me you can also fight it. That's going to take some work. Clear?"