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The pinnacle of anyHornet pilot's career is the appointment as a Fighter Combat Instructor, but while many are called few are chosen for this most demanding task. (Bill Lines)
RAAF FCI Course Demands Only The Best
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They call it ‘playing the piccolo’.
The pilot uses the finger tips of both hands to fly the F-18 Hornet, to operate it’s radars and other sensors and select, arm and fire its weapons. Like playing a musical instrument, each combination of fingertips on the buttons mounted on the stick and throttle produces a different result, except with the F-18 each time the pilot presses one button it changes the functions of all the others.
A handful of young RAAF fighter pilots can now ‘play the piccolo’ just about better than anybody else in the world . As only the RAAF’s second batch of Fighter Combat Instructors (FCls) trained on the F-18 Hornet, they have recently joined an elite group of masters of the ultimate martial art.
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