rack up the same number of flight hours
annually on the Tiger II as the full-timers,
so with most F-5 missions lasting
around an hour, they need to put in a lot
of time at the squadron each month on
top of their airline flying. It means they
are never far away from the F-5 cockpit
and easily maintain currency.
The attraction of a pilot slot at VFC-13
means that there isn’t a huge level of
turnover in pilot cadre. However, the
trickle of new pilots means the three F-5
units — VFC-13, VFC-111 ‘Sundowners’
and VMFAT-401 ‘Snipers’ — rely on three
two-seat F-5F ‘Franken-Tigers’. These jets
feature the back-end of the Swiss F-5,
with the two-seat front-end of the
original F-5Fs. With the F-5 simulators
being little more than procedural
trainers, this is all about the live flying.
‘You solo after your fourth flight,’ says
Holeski. ‘It’s a lengthy syllabus to get to
be a Level 4 Adversary, but that means
you can lead the large ‘Red Air’
formations.’ TOPGUN runs an adversary
course twice per year, which is focused
purely on bandit tactics, with the
graduate able to wear a ‘red’ TOPGUN
patch that features an adversary ‘rocker’US NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018
VFC-13 ‘FIGHTING SAINTS’^6158-65 VFC-13 C.indd 61 01/06/2018 11:49