By Nicolette Cormier TEAM Public Affairs, F/A-18

Commander Gregg "Mongo" Sears and Lt. Alan "Big Al" Armstrong don’t wear breastplates or carry a spear, yet in the eyes of their peers they are centurions. Sears, the first F/A-18E/F Super Hornet pilot to make centurion, made his 100th trap July 30 on board the USS Constellation (CV 64) with mini-boss Cmdr. Russ Bird in the back seat.

Weapon System Officer (WSO) Armstrong, went over 100 traps April 7 on the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) as part of a VFA-122 carrier qualification detachment for new instructors. He was flying with Lt. Beth Creighton, who was undergoing an initial F/A-18E/F pilot qualification.

Sears hit the 100 mark while out on the Constellation from July 26 to July 30, doing Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures Block 1’s Operation Evaluation (OPEVAL) carrier suitability testing.

"My first 23 traps, which included day and night landings, were part of the OPEVAL team’s two weeks on the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74," Sears said. "Then I got another 38 traps (day and night landings) in April 2000 on board the USS Abraham Lincoln while the squadron was out performing carrier suitability tests for a DT assist."

Sears who has more than 300 flight hours in the E/F was the Operational Test Director (OTD) responsible for all the air-to-ground Critical Operational Issues (COI) during OPEVAL.

Currently the Hornet projects branch head at VX-9, Sears spent two years in VA-27 flying A-7E’s, and transitioned with them to the F/A-18A in 1990. He was a Fleet Readiness Squadron instructor in VFA-125 for 18 months. Before his transfer to VX-9 in 1998 he was assigned to VFA-195 in Japan.

As a WSO, Armstrong is responsible for the same tasks as pilots within a squadron, planning, briefing, leading, and executing tactical missions in the carrier environment. Within VFA-122 he is responsible for instructing new pilots and WSOs on the aircraft and weapons systems of the F/A-18E/F.

Armstrong completed two Mediterranean and Persian Gulf cruises (with more than 1,000 hours and 330 traps in the A-6E) before accepting orders to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (TPS), in Patuxent River, Md. After graduating from TPS in December of 1997, he was reassigned to the Naval Strike Aircraft Test Squadron (NSATS, "Strike"). It was there that he first flew the F/A-18F in June of 1998 during the engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase of developmental flight-testing.

"At Strike, I was responsible for evaluating the avionics and weapons systems of the F/A-18E/F with a particular emphasis on the aft crew station functionality and integration. I also spent a significant amount of time flying the Super Hornet during EMD at the Weapons Test Squadron (WTS) located at NAWCWD, China Lake, Calif."

While flying with WTS, Armstrong flew the first night flights of the F/A-18E/F program and evaluated the integration of night vision devices (NVDs) with the Super Hornet. In March of 1999, he was selected to participate in the follow-on sea trials (FOST) for the Super Hornet.

"This was the second time the jet had ever been flown onboard an aircraft carrier; myself and Lt. Cmdr. Mike Wallace made the first ever arrested landing in a crewed F/A-18F."

Also during this detachment, Armstrong and Lt. Cmdr. Lance Floyd made the first night catapult shots and the first night arrested landing in the F/A-18E/F.

"In April of 1999, I checked into the F/A-18E/F FRS (VFA-122) as one of the initial cadre of Super Hornet Instructor Aircrew. I, along with seven others from VFA-122, was loaned to VX-9 to augment the aircrew chosen to perform the OPEVAL of the F/A-18E/F from May through November 1999."

Throughout OPEVAL, Armstrong (along with 22 other evaluating aircrew) evaluated the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in virtually every mission area that it was designed to perform in. After the evaluation Armstrong along with six other officers, authored the OPEVAL final report.

During OPEVAL carrier evaluation onboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), Armstrong flew several sorties with CDR Gregg Sears. Both agree if the Hornet roadmap is adequately developed and funded, then the aircraft will truly evolve into a premier strike fighter with superior capabilities.

Sears believes that the F/A-18E/F is made for the boat.

"In a Carrier Qualification (CQ) environment we had max recover fuel weight of 9800 pounds on one aircraft and 10,700 pounds on the other aircraft (it had four pylons removed). That compares with the F/A-18C that has from about 6500 pounds to 7500 pounds average in the Carrier Qualifications arena," he said. "The flight controls are optimized for the ship. I fly the auto throttles at the boat and they are great. If we had been in the running for landing grade competition during OPEVAL we would have won the Top Hook award in the air wing for the best landing grades."

Sears concludes the F/A-18C can be prone to "hard landings" necessitating maintenance inspections that have to occur in the hangar bay, and cost valuable time to check.

"We have yet to see a hard landing code on this aircraft and it feels more solid both on the cat shots and the landings. The E/F is my personal choice of aircraft to be in on those nights when the weather is bad," he said.