ALF18

Pigsty I just looked it up on Wikipedia... I will take your advice. CBC here in Canada plays a BBC series on Sunday mornings when people should be sleeping or doing something productive; Coronation Street. Somehow it doesn't float my boat. If Summer Wine is similar, I will give it a miss. ALF

A great variety of inputs so far, and some insightful comments. I have to admit, though, that I have no idea what the cultural reference was to "Last of the Summer Wine"... although it sounds intriguing. I admit to being surprised about the sensitivity to the s or z sound; that to me was not very significant, but I find it illuminating to see the emphasis on this point. Speaking of emphasis, I use a very subtle one on the first syllable. Here in French-speaking Canada, it is very common to hear words mispronounced by francophones speaking English. The usual culprit is emphasis in the wrong place (my father used to say "He put the em-PHASS-is on the wrong syl-AB-el" as an example). For example, engine will often be pronounced "en-GINE" with the long I sound, making the word hard to recognise. My wife didn't understand why I laughed so hard when she called me to announce the "check en-GINE" light was on in the car. There she was worrying the engine would blow up, and I was ROTFL. So far, I am feeling validation that my aversion to the American-sounding "com-PAWZ-it" is justified. Thanks to those whom have taken the time to respond so thoughtfully. ALF

Two more options added - if you like, you may go back and vote for one. Thanks for your input. ALF

I live in Canada; more specifically I live in a portion of Canada where 99% of the populace speaks French, my second language. For that reason I sometimes don't hear some words pronounced by native English-speakers, especially more modern words. This is the case with the word "composite" for me. I consider myself an anglophone (Canadian code for native English-speaker), and I pronounce things the Canadian way. I was wondering how people pronounce this? In an Aviation English class I teach, we talk about composite aircraft skins and other components. Some of my students say it "com-PAWS-it" (emphasis on the capitalised syllable) in English. None say it "COMP-oz-it", which is kind of the way I thought it should be pronounced. Please vote in the poll. I am not looking for an absolute right or wrong; I just want to know if I am totally out to lunch saying COMP-oz-it. Could there be regional differences? In other words, do Americans say it one way, while Commonwealth countries say it another way? Any anecdotal insight you might want to add in the thread would be interesting as well. ALF

I enjoyed this GB. Good builds, folks! Question: does anyone know if the Dragon kit in 1/144 (CF-188A Hornet 410 Cougar Squadron) is available still? If so, where? I don't build in that scale, but a friend asked me yesterday if the kit was still available. ALF

Pete All our aircraft had these AOA light boxes on the nose strut. I can't recall ever flying one that didn't have the box installed. If they ever flew without, there must have been a maintenance reason for it (broken, no spare), and an entry in the aircraft log to that effect, because it was a normal part of the Canadian aircraft equipment set. We never used the lights for anything practical, though - nobody ever checked to see if our AOA was on-speed for landings from the ground. There was also an AOA indexer next to the HUD, which most guys left off (intensity turned down to zero on the rheostat), because we used the HUD cue for AOA on approach (what we called the E-bracket). I'm a little mystified as to why there would be pics with this box missing. ALF

I'm in as well. Neu has done his usual arm-twisting job on me, and I didn't put up much of a fight... I have a 1/48 Sabre in Korean war colours. I have always loved the yellow fuselage band on natural metal. I will take the opportunity to research a Canadian ace who flew Sabres in this scheme during the Korean war: Omer Levesque. ALF

Shaun For an American Hornet, there may be some differences in procedure when it comes to which flags and pins are installed at various stages of "putting the aircraft to bed" or when parked on the flight line. What is the same, however, would be the locations and types of protective equipment. When ours were parked ready for the pilot's walkaround, we left 4 pins installed on the airframe (tail hook, and one per gear), plus the two pins in the cockpit (canopy jettison and ejection handle). I have been told by USN pilots that they typically do not insert the seat pin, because this series of seats have a safe/arm handle on the right armrest that prevents inadvertent ejection. The tail hook pin is around the attachment point mid-way along the hook itself. In this pic of my 1/32 Hornet build from a few years ago, you can see what it looks like (but the location is not precise - this one is too far forward). http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm175/danmcw/P1010300.jpg The wheel strut pins (I hadn't finished twisting the copper wire yet): http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm175/danmcw/P1010303.jpg The nosewheel pin is installed at the point where the "drag brace" (the part that goes up and aft from the wheels) meets the vertical strut. http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm175/danmcw/P1010380.jpg In the cockpit, there is a pin that goes into the base of the ejection handle, and has a long remove before flight (RBF) flag that ends in an elastic "noose" that drapes over the top of the control stick to help remind the pilot the pin is installed. The pin for the canopy jettison goes at the base of the yellow and black handle (handle shown here, but no pin installed). http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm175/danmcw/P1010285.jpg For other protection, there are of course intake and exhaust covers, and pitot boom covers that are very typical (L-shaped red cloth). Often, the two pitot covers are linked together by a cream-coloured bungie cord that stretches between the two pitot booms and holds the two covers in place by tension. If the wings are folded, there can be pins installed under the wing, near the fold itself, with RBF flags. Missiles will have hard plastic magnetic covers (AIM-9 series only, not AMRAAM or AIM-7) on the seeker heads and a red sheath around the target detector section near the front fins (red, with RBF flag). Other weapons may have other pins and flags, but fuel tanks don't have pins. Finally, an F/A-18A will have this "beer can" (little orange tit that pops out when twisted, just forward of the electrical panel and aft of the ID light) that electrically safes the gun. On F/A-18Cs, this is also present, but there is also a second beer can for the chaff/flare dispenser electrical safety in the same area. http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm175/danmcw/P1010291.jpg Hope this helps. ALF

That is simply an amazing manifestation of perseverance and hard work. Looking great! ALF

I don't have a non-copyrighted pic for you, but I can describe the attachment, or if my attempts at being understood are too muddled, send me your e-mail address and I'll send you a good pic showing how it looks. The middle of the cover is held in place by a pin that pops into a retractable hole on the outside of the intake. That hole is at the back of the vee shape that the cover makes at the centre back; inside the intake danger decal, and a bit above centre (i.e. in the vee of the decal's lines, but above centre and forward of the apex of the vee). From there, the covers stretch around the front of the intakes, and the top and bottom inside corners are held in place by bungee cords that are hooked into small holes in the airframe (one under the LEX about 2 feet aft of the intake, and the other under the intake forward of the wheel well, roughly halfway toward the wheel well from the intake). Confused? ALF

The Sniper fits onto Station 4 (only that station, because it is the only one that has ECS air to cool the pod), with the same kind of "skirt" part that the Nighthawk B pod used. Most, if not all, kits should have that attachment skirt to go with a FLIR pod from the kit. If you want pics, let me know and I can beam you some by e-mail (not mine to post). ALF

Yellow means live explosive in a weapon (warhead), in this case a bomb. I believe (not 100% certain) that the two yellow rings on USN and USMC bombs signify thermal protection applied to the bomb, to prevent them 'cooking off' in an on-board fire. ALF

Definitely plausible that the canopy could be up with any flap setting. Unlike some aircraft (Tutor from 2 CFFTS, not Snowbirds, for example), there is no restriction on the canopy being open with engines running on the Hornet. So the canopy could be full open or full closed, with any flap setting, engines running or engines shut down. ALF

Neu I decided not be shy, given that your ulterior motive for getting me to participate in this GB (lurking or building, machts nichts) was to garner information. Admittedly, in some lighting, the forward fins can look a bit lighter, like in this pic (Canadian Forces Combat Camera photos in this post): This one, further back, shows that the front fins are significantly darker than the rear ones. The rear fins are very close to FS 36375 (the light grey lower colour of the CF-18). In fact the missiles tend to be a lot cleaner than the aircraft skin, because live ones are rarely flown - except in this Libyan operation of course. I quite understand your wish to "get it done" - been there, felt that way. Great job, and good luck getting the others done in time. ALF

Great detail job in this tiny scale - it's clear you're way younger than I am! FYI, here is some explanation of the types of wingtip store you might see on a CF-18: AIM-9M (live) - these are the grey ones with yellow and burnt orange bands identifying the explosives in the warhead and rocket motor sections CATM-9M - Captive Air Training Missile (AIM-9M). This is a blue tube with a real seeker head installed at the front. Blue for inert rear section. Canada always used blue tubes for these; USAF and other air forces might use a grey tube with blue bands showing that it is inert. Canadian AIM-9 CATMs were like yours in this build at first; grey tail fins, and dark-coloured forward (guidance) fins. In later years, we took to flying with the tail fins removed, and eventually the guidance fins were removed as well, resulting in a blue tube with a dark seeker head on the front, and no fins. So one tiny critique on the CATM-9s you have installed: the forward fins should be a gunmetal colour, not a light grey. DATM-9M - Dummy Air Training Missile (AIM-9M). This is a blue tube with a blue warhead, and fins may be installed as per the CATM. The seeker head is not active (this is the Dummy part). Why carry it? Usually only on a 2-seat CF-18, and especially when it is configured with a centreline tank only for underwing/fuselage stores. The dual (but not the single) CF-18 has some Angle of Attack (AOA) restrictions when loaded with asymmetric wingtip stores, because the bigger canopy reduces longitudinal stability and renders it more vulnerable to departure from controlled flight at high AOA. So when you fly a dual with a CATM, you would likely have a DATM installed on the opposite wingtip to remove those AOA restrictions when air fighting. ACMI or ACMR/I pod - (Air Combat Manouevring Instrumentation or Range Instrumentation). The older versions were grey tubes with a pitot tube at the front (long, skinny and metal coloured), and no fins. Older versions were dependent on ground receiver and recording stations to gather the flight data for debrief; Canada only had one instrumented range and it was in Cold Lake. We would sometimes deploy to Florida or elsewhere where the USAF had a range, and we would borrow USAF pods for use down there. Nowadays, we have "untethered" pods that use GPS data for positioning and have on-board recording ability, which is then synchronised with the precise GPS-based timing on the recordings, and replayed at a portable ground debrief station. These pods are different in that they have large metal antennae (loops) near the front, but still have the pointing pitot tube out front. BLOS comms - Beyond Line Of Sight communications pod. This is brand new, looks a lot like an ACMI pod, but incorporates a satellite communications receiver that retransmits on a radio-frequency band so that the pilot can talk via his on-board radios and a satellite link with controllers many miles away. I saw one of these in a kiosk at the airshow in Bagotville this summer, and was fooled into thinking it was ACMI at first glance. I don't know the official name; BLOS comms was the name of the project to acquire this capability eons ago when I flew the aircraft. I love the weathering job. For the era, at 410, the aircraft were never this dirty, but the effect is very typical of a modern CF-18's appearance. ALF

You're very courageous, Pete! A couple months ago I completed a special scheme in 1/48 that had very similar decaling challenges. Thick decals. Old and brittle. BIG decals. All from about the same time frame, and the same decal manufacturer. Some of these orange panels peeled right up, and had to be persuaded to stick with Future underneath and on top to hold them down. I sympathise with you, and truly understand the mental challenge you are facing here. Here is the recipient (the guy who flew this aircraft back in 2003), happily posing with his new model in his back yard in June. Keep at it - looking really nice so far! ALF

Pete I would dearly love to do another Hornet, but two things are stopping me: 1. the only kits I have left in my stash are 1/32 scale; I want to do them justice and 1 month is insufficient for that 2. I have just started back to work for the fall academic session; my focus in the next few weeks is in kicking off the year with some semblance of organisation and competence... Thanks for your support thoughout the build. Neu Thanks dude. Yup, the new ones definitely had a new smell to them. The singles never smelled like vomit (like the back seats of the duals sometimes did), but when we first got them they were definitely pristine. Leather, cloth, oil... not the same as a car smell, but certainly distinctively new. When I started flying the aircraft, we were still receiving the last new ones. While I was on course at 410 in Cold Lake, we received 783 through 792, which all became 433's aircraft (my first operational squadron). They showed up with about 10 flying hours on them, ferried from St Louis by company test pilots. We flew them during the course, and when I ferried 790 to Bagotville, it had about 50 hours on it. Funny anecdote about the deliveries. All Hornets going to Canada-based units were delivered to Cold Lake (through 410 squadron, then to the op sqn). Those going to Baden, Germany, were sent straight there, and delivered in Europe. The reason had to do with sales taxes. The government, in its infinite wisdom, charged itself sales tax on the aircraft, unless they were accepted out of the country. That allowed us to save some budget on the ones delivered to Baden. We all shook our heads at the idiocy of a government that would reduced its own acquisition budget by charging itself sales taxes. ALF

Shaun The grey shade should be the same as the surrounding aircraft structure, so in the case of a Canadian Hornet it would be the upper grey (FS 35237) colour. For USN, I would match the skin next to the canopy. Thanks for stopping by! ALF

1/48 Hasegawa kit 09415, CF-18 75th RCAF anniversary. Done in the 70th anniversary scheme, tail 188751, 425 Squadron Bagotville demo jet. Leading Edge decals. Resin seat (Legend). Rocket pods from Kinetic F-5A kit. Configured as I flew it after the demo season was over, and it flew as part of the regular squadron fleet before the tail and special marking scheme was repainted. ALF

I'm calling this one done. After I took the pics, I realised that I forgot to install the AOA probes and pitot tubes; I did that right after transferring the pics onto my PC. Here it is with a friend. The lower aircraft is 790, which was the jet I ferried from Cold Lake to Bagotville, when we opened 433 Squadron with its new aircraft fresh off the assembly line and newly-delivered to Cold Lake. Note a few small differences: -The markings are from the earlier symmetrical era, with roundels on both upper wings and the large CANADA on the side in all caps; not the Post-Office logo style Canada on 751. -The aircraft is configured with a centreline tank, which was the normal training config until we realised that the fatigue life accumulation on the airframes was through the roof, and the fleet would not last long at that rate. We started flying in 2 tanks for training, which reduced wing flexure, and also meant it took longer to accelerate and pull more G, having the net effect of pulling less G on a typical flight profile. -The grey demarcation lines are the early style, and there is no squadron logo. -There are no LEX fences installed; this was 1988, before they designed and implemented the fix a year later for tail vibration/fatigue. More pics in the finished build thread. I'm glad this one is done! ALF

Here, with the front windscreen in place, is the HUD installed. Looking nearly finished. Now it was time to glue the rocket pods in place. I chose to attach them to the outboard sides of each VER. Depending on how the SMS programming works, and cockpit selections, this may allow both to be fired at once, or only one pod at a time. For target practice like this, we would have fired one pod, done a second pass, and fired the second one. For the canopy brace, I have finally learned (after building about 6 of these kits) how to get it right. First step, glue the strut in place on the canopy itself, and let it dangle until it dries. Make sure it is at the right angle (left/right; it will tend to hang at the right angle when the little nub is inserted into the hole properly). After it is nice and dry, and ONLY after it's dry (don't ask me how I know this; my blood pressure is still high when I think of how I learned), glue the two rear attachment points and the bottom of the little strut in place. The finished job looks like this: Max has seen too many aircraft to be particularly interested in this one... ALF

The finish line is in sight! Here I have applied the Testors spray dull coat, and installed the ejection seat. The rear deck behind the seat is a silver mesh, held in place by a velcro frame. I have dry-brushed some silver onto a black background. Lost a whole modelling day - but it was worth it. Drove down to Quebec City, and visited some of the touristy stuff, including the Chateau Frontenac (pictured here) and the Citadelle, which was built from 1820 until 1855 in defence of Quebec from those nasty Americans, you see... It was a nice day spent with SWMBO and the kids. It's a good thing I had a relaxing day. One of my nightmares with this kit is doing the HUD supports. Here you see the instruction sheet, which shows how to bend the PE and glue the two transparencies in place. Seems pretty straightforward, except for the fact that the parts are minuscule! Have a close look near the coloured arrow, and you'll see one half of the HUD support glued to one of the transparencies. I have found the best way to build this up is to glue one half on, let it dry, glue the other half, then apply the second transparency. At the very end, glue the whole HUD assembly into place atop the glare shield. The glass where the HUD is projected upward onto the combining glasses is the silver disc here. I used a metallic pen to get the high gloss silver. The HUD symbology is green, so the glass ends up looking like this, achieved with a magic marker. The HUD all glued together. ARGH! A bit messy, but so small it won't show much. ALF

Shaun I use the LEX a lot to hold them; paint wear hasn't been an issue with mine. Another way I find works is to put two fingers in the nozzles, and one on the other hand on the nose, to spin it around. When working on the belly area, I sit it on the vertical tails, and sometimes put a horizontal sprue or similar support right under the cockpit side rails to protect the top finish. I also sometimes handle them from the fuselage sides behind the flaps, but it's easy to get fingerprints on the finish this way. Side benefit: this area of the F/A-18 tends to get greasy from fuel and grime, so you can explain smudged finger marks as your expert weathering technique! ALF

Thanks Neu! If you mean the LEX walkways, yes, they would be darker than the normal top colour. Walkways can vary from quite dark (like the ones I've done on this build) to a colour that looks very much like the top grey. All CF-18s have the anti-skid coating, which can be dark or light. Here, you see 711 with darker walkways, and 781 with lighter ones. Taken in 2006, credit Wing Photo section Bagotville. 711 was not upgraded, and was retired not long after this photo; 781 has already had ECP 583 upgrades. Also note the differences between the top and bottom camo demarcations, on the vertical stabs and on the nose. 711 has a scheme similar to this airshow jet (751), while 781 has a nose demarcation that resembles the original one straight forward from the LEX to the gun, and the tail is more of an arc (instead of the interim wavy lines on 711), similar to the original scheme, but a thicker dark grey arc. These walkways blend into the background colour; they fade over time. Photo taken by D. Bélanger. The tail wavy grey was common in the 90s, but the nose had gone from the longer slanted grey to the straight forward to the gun style. This is a 425 jet, on the ground in Cartierville, Quebec. This was the location of Canadair's 3rd line maintenance hangars for the CF-18, before they moved to Mirabel. Cartierville (on Montreal Island, about 3 nm East of Trudeau airport) is now closed, and has been converted to luxury townhouses and a golf course behind Bombardier's plant. I was starting up this one, about to fly to Bagotville after conducting the test flight. I made this flight in exactly 13 minutes, from start of take-off roll to touchdown in Bagotville, over 200 nm away. En route speed was about Mach 1.5, at 37,000 feet. Burner climb to FL 370, held speed down to M 0.98 until clear of population North of Montreal, asked ATC if I could go a bit faster... after a pause where he said "your groundspeed is already 720 knots; just HOW MUCH faster do you really want to go?", I replied "about 50% faster". He said OK, and I pushed it into burner, maintaining 1.4 to 1.5 until I got to 90 nm from Bagotville, where I slowed to 0.96, and spiraled steeply down from about 25 miles, pulling 5 to 7 G in the spiral to keep the speed subsonic and not boom anyone, rolling straight onto final in the empty traffic pattern, and landing. I was almost late for a meeting... but made it on time. Walkways are quite pronounced on this one. The canopy also has the original light copper colour on the framing, just like early F-15 Eagles. These were subsequently painted over on older ones (like this one, which I think was 716 or 711; have to check my log book), and later deliveries had grey canopy frames right from the factory. Note also how clean the gear struts are. Very typical. ALF

The tiny sway braces have been coloured silver using a Sharpie, and glued into place on the VERs. I've also coloured the navigation lights red and green. Gear doors all installed. Lots of fiddly work there. Man, these high-resolution pics are brutal! I have to touch up some paint here and there. Sigh. The point of this was to show the landing/taxi light installed (needs white paint around the back side), and the little AOA (Angle Of Attack) indicator lights are painted with magic marker. These are functional but ignored on our aircraft; the USN/USMC use these for carrier approaches, so the safety officer on the deck can tell if the AOA is safe (centre light). There is also a small box next to the HUD in the cockpit, with the same 3 indications, but these are usually turned to fully dim or off, and nobody I know uses the indications. In the HUD, we have a nice elongated E symbol called the "energy bracket", which allows you to fly on-speed on approach (at 8.1 degrees AOA). We never calculated our approach speed; we just flew AOA. It's handy, because even in a steep turn (60 degrees bank, at 2 G) turning to a visual final approach, you can maintain safe AOA using the HUD indication, then slow airspeed as the G reduces to 1 on final. One thing I forgot to mention about the rockets is that the pods have changed colours over the years. They used to be an olive green like mine; in later years they were light grey like in the video. I say 'were', because they are no longer used. Also, in the video, you may have seen that the pods came with nose cones installed. We called them "frangible" noses. They reduced drag during transit. For training, like my pods, we did not install the frangible noses, because the ranges were close enough that fuel consumption was not a consideration. In wartime, the pods would have been jettisoned very soon after firing to reduce drag; in peacetime we dragged them home to be reused. Now back to the finishing touches. I have managed to lose the canopy actuator strut (it flew off into oblivion, probably to be found next week), but luckily I have another one from another kit that will have the closed-canopy version. ALF