2014 Hornet Ball Video on Vimeo Man, that looks like FUN! <<2014 Hornet Ball Video from Wingnut Productions PLUS 3 weeks ago NOT YET RATED The 2014 Hornet Ball Video made by "Wingnut"! The Hornet Ball is an annual event consisting of all the West coast Naval F-18 Hornet and Super Hornet squadrons, their pilots and guests. Each year's ball features a video compiled from the squadrons' year of flying in both combat and training missions. CREDITS: Intro Poem: "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Music: F.U.N. - Bassnectar & Seth Drake Bullet Train - Stephen Swartz (feat. Joni Fatora) Crave You (Adventure Club Remix) - Flight Facilities>>
It's interesting to note the pilots hands on a catapult launch. Hand is off the stick. I believe the launch is fully automated, at least that's what a friend told me. Maybe some F18 guys will chime in and comment. I also love what looks like total chaos with the flight controls. One half the stab going up, the other down, stuff moving all over the place. All that to keep it going more or less straight. Love it!
At 8:44, what is the plane with the canards? I don't believe it is another plane as the sweep back and the chord at the tip doesn't match a F-18.
Trim setting does different things depending if the flaps are up or down. The Hornet trim with the flaps down is picking an AOA that it will capture after launch with the stick in the neutral position (hands off). The higher the trim, the higher the AOA it will capture. So on launch you will see the elevators/stabilators go to full up then start to relax after it gets off the catapult and gets closer to the AOA you chose for it. You can also see the stabilators go up when they hit the deck and the AOA goes to zero on traps. With the flaps up, your trimming to "tell" the jet what 1G is. Hope that makes sense. In other words, with the flaps up, a neutral stick will hold attitude(1G) at 150kts or 600kts, without trimming as the jet accelerates or slows down. it is always seeking 1G. The AOA will change, but not the "1G". I had to kinda learn a different way to fly/think with those flight controls. 1" of stick movement generally gives the same nose or wing movement regardless of speed. It will use whatever surfaces as necessary to give what the pilot is asking. So for a pure roll, it might use ailerons, differential stabilators, differential flaps and rudders (to stop adverse yaw). The engineers did a really nice job of engineering out most the bad handling characteristics. You'll also notice the rudders toed in with the flaps down. This gives a nose up moment (drag above the CG) to help getting the nose up. With that bent knee landing gear, your main tires move aft about 3 feet when you touch down, making it harder to get the nose up on a cat shot or bolter. Hope what I said makes sense. I think the canard A/C is an SU-35, an SU-27 Flanker derivative. Dogdish
Makes perfect sense. Thanks. Didn't realize that about the toed in rudders. Good stuff. Must be a hell of a ride.
The most bone chilling moment in that video is at 9:48. That jet comes out of the clouds for a trap. Only seconds to see the ball (fresnel lens)….brings back some bad memories. The LSO's are talking to him/her, but still not fun. Trying to land from ICLS (ILS) to transition to a visual "ball" landing in that short of a time, is not really enjoyable. Bill
Great video. Where do the F-18s fly around that low? I'm near NAS Lemoore (a major west coast F-18 base out in the California central valley) once in a while but I don't think I've have never seen one actually in the air. Every so often we have an F-18 flying into Moffet Field here in the Bay Area but they just fly in from somewhere and land. I did learn the background music in the video is from the genre "female vocal liquid dubstep". I would say who ever had heard of that but then I'd feel old.... cool song though. Its Bullet Train by Stephen Swartz.
