RAF Form 414, Vol 23

I left you last time after we had returned with our Hornets from New Zealand having had a very productive and interesting few weeks working with the Kiwi A4 Skyhawks. We soon settled back into our Squadron HQ at RAAF Williamtown and started to work up some Maritime Strike tactics against the ships of the Australian Navy. These were early days for the Australian Hornets and the anti ship missiles that were to be purchased had yet to be properly integrated into the aircraft’s weapons system… and so continues the Tales from the Old Pilot’s Log Books. The Hornets mix it with the Navy! It was the P3 Orion’s job to find the ships and broadcast their positions The RAAF had yet to equip their F18s with anti ship missiles but that didn’t stop us training We flew affiliation sorties against the RAAF Caribous so I got the chance to observe from the other side of the engagement Called in from leave to fly an engine air test I did so with my holiday beard still attached! The rake of the Hornet seat didn’t suit my back leading to a nagging problem On our way to Malaysia we staged through Bali At RMAF Butterworth we stayed in the beautiful old RAF Mess And could frequently be found in the Hong Kong Bar Back home in Australia I started to suffer from vertigo and wondered if the dream had come to an end