Interview with Nick Anderson on the F/A-18 Hornet 

Thanks Gavin I'm glad your enjoying them

Sweet nice I'm nz

Cheers :)

I lost an engine while strafing with an F-5. They found a 20mm hole in the engine fan, so I had to eat crow for getting “too close to my work”. A tech later told me a 20mm fastener had come loose from the gun bay and had gone down the intake…

Cheers for the kind words.

Cheers David, much appreciated.

Thanks very much Kevin, glad your enjoying the channel.

Cheers James.

Michael Leeming really glad you are enjoying them, Michael. Well I am rather envious of that as I have not had the chance to get up in a military aircraft yet.

Thank you yes I was lucky but working for MoD we had this opportunity. I notice on the lightning pilots directory that we have a couple of ex lightning boys living in york. I'd love to meet them Thank you for great videos.

Cheers Scott.

Cheers mate!

Thanks very much :)

He is a top bloke.

some would say he's got a lot of tales to tell ;)

razgriz33 Indeed he does!

Glad you found us and I hope you enjoy our content.

Much apprciated

Nothing wrong with the pigs. A few mates flew them and loved them.

Thanks Peter, the next one will be a USAF tanker pilot.

+Rob Nunya I have indeed.

Its always a possibility. I hope to interview an F-35 pilot in the near future.

Sea Vixen

With all due respect, that's kind of a naive attitude. Everything eventually has to be replaced or grounded -- for good -- because of sheer age and fatigue! It is generally cheaper to buy a new plane than to dump good money into an old one once it gets past a certain age... They generally don't remanufacture/rebuild old planes unless it's significantly cheaper than buying a new plane and even then the practice of remanufacturing can come back to bite you! For instance, they "remanufactured" A-6s through the 1980s into the 1990s with new wings. The problem was that the new wings were too stiff and transferred their loads onto the fuselage so those planes were actually worn out quicker than they were being worn out before! There are aircraft that are "flightworthy" that can't be flown because of practical reasons -- lack of spare parts, lack of knowledge to maintain those planes, and lack of safety margin. They had to ground the Vulcans for good after the last flightworthy one failed the safety inspection. It was crazy to keep flying it! A pilot was killed in South Africa a number of years ago flying a British Lightning when the plane suffered a mechanical failure. It was traced back to improper maintenance! With an old plane, you don't necessarily have mechanics with the experience to maintain it anymore after a certain number of years. It's better to use people who were experienced maintainers in a military type than to rely on civilians unless the civilians were reservists OR contractors belonging to a company that serviced or built that plane in the first place! The F-18, F-15, and F-16 will eventually pass into history because they're past the original lifetime expectations. For a naval plane, that's particularly bad if it's not a Harrier. They're rated 6000 hours because of constant saltwater exposure and slamming onto and being catapulted off of an aircraft carrier. You can "sort of" get away with extending the lifespan of a land-based plane so long as you clean it regularly (they taxi the Hawaiian ANG planes constantly through "car washes" on the runway to clean off the saltwater spray that gets on them during flight), have the spare parts (big, big problem with limited-run production planes like fighters; cannabilization is more routine than people think!) and fly within advisable limits. They're NOT constantly flying F-15s and F-16s at 9G's and Mach 2+ to get past 8,000 hours with some (F-16) or most (F-15) of the planes still in service. They've been G-restricted (7-G or less) and speed-limited (Mach 1.5) to reduce wear and tear. Fact is, with the constant deployments and missions over the past quarter-century, they've been worn through faster than was initially estimated. There have been AT LEAST 2 F-15 break-ups that I'm aware of. Both planes were well past 20 years service and were C-models. They've "only" had access panels and wing flaps break off F-16s and F-18s during air shows! The due date for some of these planes is probably at least 5 years past safe retirement. It's crazy to keep them flying unless they get major rebuilds which is just not in the budget. I think they'll keep them flying until more of them break under routine exercises. It's sick but it's already happened and they've blamed the manufacturers for crack-ups that happened for planes that have been in service for longer than what was recommended!

actually the latest F18 is as good as if not better then the F35. There is even talk of the F15 being put back in production to replace the F35 program but politics killed the idea. There was even talk about the RN buying Hornets instead of the F35 as it can use the ski jump but they would still need to land by hook and since BAE lied about the QE and Prince of wales being easily converted to wire trap system. the cost of switching to Hornets instead of F35s would be too great due to cost to modify the carriers.

Peorhum lol, no F-18 is nowhere close to the F-35. Stop believing internet whining and get the facts.

actually it is...it is a smaller fighter but it can do all that the F35 except for having a smaller radar. Maybe you are just a f35 fanboy who ignores the truth...or you are ignorant of the truth

Peorhum - The F-35 is superior in every single aspect to any 4th gen. fighter aircraft. The facts are in. Sorry to burst your bubble, dude.