The Right Stuff Squadrons

No 25 (City of Perth) Squadron laboriously flew its Macchi MB-326H trainers from Perth to proudly display its WA black swan emblem when it joined the Macchis of 76 Squadron at Williamtown, the RAAF’s main fighter base and HQ of the Tactical Fighter Group. The veteran Macchis are only small stuff when stacked up against the RAAF’s high performance F-18 Hornets but the versatile jet trainers, now formed into useful squadrons, breed the ‘right stuff’ when it comes to the development of Australia’s fast jet pilots. They’re returning the backbone into what has in recent years been a dispirited service.

The pilot excessive loss to the airlines through the 1985-88 period largely to Qantas and Cathay – made the RAAF both accelerate and rethink its pilot training programs. While the airlines stripped all the operational squadrons (and notably the ‘trashhaulers’ of the transport world) those who felt the loss most were 81 Wing’s F-18 Hornet fighter squadrons and 82 Wing’s F-111 strike bombers. The drivers who fly the “fast jets” are the elite. The public and political focus on the diaspora was the way it hit the operational effectiveness of the RAAF’s sharp end. Within the service, however, there was a longer term concern.

Most of the senior officers in the RAAF have come from fighters. A high proportion of the remainder come from the strike community. In siphoning off the RAAF’s best and brightest, the airlines had also decapitated its future leadership potential.

The outsider sees the choice of fighter pilots for future chiefs as an air force cult, glorifying the fastest and most colourful of its toys. The actuality is that before a ‘bograt’ is turned loose on a $40 million piece of kit, the RAAF wants to make sure he is the individual best suited to using this equipment most efficiently and to its best advantage. The eyes of the air force brass are thus on every pilot in training. The top rated are streamed where possible into fast jets. The others gravitate into the C-130s and the P-3Cs. In this context, ‘top rated’ doesn’t mean just the most capable aeroplane handlers. It also includes that fighter pilot quality of ‘having the world in your head-knowing where the other aircraft are in relation to yours- as well as having initiative and dash. If commanders are to come from the general duty classification and the pilots with the best leadership qualities are streamed to fast jets, then it is logical to assume that fast jet pilots will also be the future leaders.

Now, about two years after the rush to pocket big pay packets has tapered off (thanks in part to hefty re-enlistment bonuses but also arising from the slowdown in airline recruitment and, of course, the aftermath of the replacement of resigned pilots in the domestic airlines with foreigners), the air force is looking at a training machine which is cranked up and producing young pilots for what in peacetime are big numbers.

You need experience and knowledge to fly operationally the F-111 or the Hornet. Getting the right stuff in the operational jets. is costly and wasteful because it breeds a relatively high wash-out rate. Better to enhance and if necessary sort out at a lower and less costly level. So there is a need for a home between training school and the operational squadrons, where pilots build up experience and maturity through transitional training.

Looking at the transitional need a couple of years ago, the RAAF decided to change the way in which it made use of future Hornet and F-111 ‘jocks-in-waiting’ and how it prepared them for the squadrons. At the same time, the training syllabus was changing. The Pilatus PC-9s were phasing in and as pilots were streamed through them, they made less use of the ageing Macchi 326 jets, which despite their venerable age still have a lot of exciting flying left in the rewinged airframes. The transition from PC-9s to operational jets is enormous and also needed to be bridged. The Macchi hours that became available stretched out over the gap. The RAAF decided that the way to use Macchi capacity was to form them into squadrons and place them under Tactical Fighter Group operational control. It then assigned to these squadrons the best of the graduates with shiny new wings from 2 FTS at Pearce, WA. The move brought the new pilots immediately into a squadron milieu and took them out of training command into the operational side of the service. At the same time it created a climate which would enhance their training while monitoring and assisting each individual’s performance. At the same time, the RAAF had obligations to support the navy (after the RAN lost its own fixed wing aircraft), as well as to undertake other duties, including some army support. All this provided real tasks for the reformed squadrons. The first to be reactivated was 76 ‘Black Panthers’ Squadron, which returned to its former base at Willamtown, where it operated Mirages before it was wound down as a budgetary measure during the seventies. The second was 25 (City of Perth) Squadron at Pearce.

Both squadrons have a shining history in RAAF annals. No 76 helped turn the tide of battle at Milne Bay for Japan’s first defeat in World War II. Its Kittyhawks went into action in close support, literally as they raised their gear after takeoff. They were still under fire as they landed. No 25 Squadron saw less action as a long range patrol squadron. It was based in WA, won one battle honour and sank a sub. Afterwards, as a CAF (Citizen Air Force) unit and with its black swan logo, it was taken to Perth’s heart. But its deactivation in 1960 means that it has to some extent been forgotten.

Both commanding officers of the two squadrons have a similar history. They joined the RAAF as non-commissioned radio technicians, switched to pilot training and flew fighters for much longer than most knuckleheads are able to.

The Macchis are far from being hot fighters. By modern standards they are slow (about 360 knots) and their RR Viper engines are low powered. “They’re relatively docile to fly,” says Wing Commander Garry (Huck) Ennis, CO of 25 Squadron. “But you can do things with them that the systems in the Hornet won’t let you do.

“The Macchi is good for improving pilot skills,” Wing Commander G R ‘Spike’ Lee says.

Ennis takes into No 25 the graduates of Pearce based 2 FTS who have been selected for fast jets. He transitions them to the Macchi and develops the skills they acquired across the airfield at 2 FTS. These include pairs and fours flying along with advanced navigation and flying techniques. They are also started on the introductory fighter course so that they are well into the first unit before they transfer to Wiliamtown where the course proper takes place. General work includes operating with the navy’s two destroyer escorts at Garden Island, WA. Much of the work is routine calibration of radars and guns, which means fly- ing straight and level at fixed heights.

But the recent Middle East mission meant the introduction of surface skimming missile simulation. A Macchi flies with the F-111 or Hornet attacker as the bigger aircraft simulates the missile launch and breakaway. Then the Macchi bores in as a make believe missile, flying 150ft above the surface, straight for the ship. This can be an interesting mission when sea birds are working fishing shoals off the coast in the path of the low flying jet. As vacancies open up in 76 Squadron, the young pilots transfer to Williamtown. They then undertake the full introductory fighter course and work and play as a general squadron until vacancies open up in the operational fighter or strike squadrons. Lee notes that the extra experience in 25 Squadron give the pilots a flying start into the first part of the fighter course, which is a basic introduction. This is followed by air-to-air and air-to-ground introductions.

They remain in 76 for about 12-18 months and after they have passed the course, take the chance of brushing up the advanced skills they have learned and practising them regularly. They also work with the fleet and take part in deployments, such as the RAAF’s Pitch Black air defence exercise and the Kangaroo 89 ADF exercise.

The extra time operating within a squadron improves the success rate of the pilots when they move on to operational squadrons, Lee said. He has noted several cases of relatively late developers who had passed all the relevant ‘rides’ as they moved through the system, but without distinction. When they matured and improved their skills, their flying and personal qualities improved dramatically and they are now among the best of the younger squadron pilots.

Nos 25 and 76 Squadrons also offer the RAAF an opportunity to come to terms with using reserves. No 25 Squadron already has a big reserve component on the maintenance and administrative side and uses two reserve pilots. Lee, at 76 Squadron, hopes to use some of the former RAAF fighter pilots who went to the airlines to build up his instructor numbers, because a number of former Hornet pilots who joined Qantas still live close to Williamtown, which is about 180km north of Sydney.

While there’s still several years of life left in the Macchis, the RAAF is looking at the chance of increasing the capability of 25 and 76 Squadrons when it comes time to re-equip. Although no moves have yet been made, types like the Macchi 339, Casa C-101 and the British Aerospace Hawk are being discussed. These would add to the training role a useful ground strike, close support capability which at present the RAAF lacks and which the army naturally wants to see acquired.