It’s that time once again, folks! A very Happy (and slightly late) Burner Friday to all of you fine men and women! In this installment we bring you an image capture almost seven years ago to the day.

This student pilot, flying a Boeing F/A-18C Hornet  is is doing some FCLPs as part of his training syllabus on the way to becoming a fleet naval aviator.

The VFA-125 “Rough Raiders” got their start as VA-25 on 11 April 1958, flying the F9F Cougar from NAS Moffett Field in California. This unit has trained thousands of naval aviators on the rigors of being an attack/strike fighter pilot in America’s fleet Navy. Over the years the Rough Raiders also flew the A-4 Skyhawk or “Scooter”, A-7 Corsair II or SLUF, and all variants of the venerable F/A-18 Hornet. Sadly they were disestablished on 1 October 2010.

This can’t and won’t stop us here at FighterSweep from honoring their legacy and paying a debt of gratitude to the thousands of men and women who have served with this outstanding unit. Enjoy the video of LT Mike “Crack” Poe putting the Legacy Hornet through its paces in his final demo, done in front of a hometown crowd during the California Capital Airshow.

We hope you have a safe and fun weekend, FighterSweep fans!