A morning with the Hornet Squadron
This morning, the boys and I were lucky enough to be invited to RAAF Base Darwin to view a
squadron of F/A-18 Hornets that were in town for an exercise with the
USAF. Thanks to Daniella and Boyd, we got to meet David, one of the
plane captains, and he spent some time showing us around a couple of
aircraft that were undergoing maintenance in one of the hard dispersals
on base.
I thought I was a bit of an expert on these things, but David proved
that I still have a lot to learn. We spoke at length about the weapons
systems, the future of the Hornets in the RAAF and many other things.
For instance, did you know the cannon on the Hornet can fire approx. 100
rounds per second? And that they only carry enough ammo for a 6 second
burst? Because of the firing speed, the shells are electronically
discharged, i.e. not with a traditional manual firing pin.
I also did not know that the Hornet can fire weapons at a 'High Alpha'
(approx. 35 degrees nose up) and is one of the only aircraft in the
world that can do that?
We would like to thank David, Boyd and Daniella for giving us their time
during a busy exercise to show me and boys around. I think I was way
more excited than my sons to be honest. Jordan also presented David
with a hand drawn F/A-18 as a thank you present.
