Oceana chief flies to 4,000-hour milestone

VIRGINIA BEACH

For the final few months of his Navy career, Capt. Jim Webb will sport a new patch on the left shoulder of his flight suit.

It represents an achievement that fewer than two dozen military pilots have accomplished: 4,000 hours in the cockpit of an F/A-18 fighter jet.

Webb, commanding officer of Oceana Naval Air Station, hit the milestone earlier this month during a routine flight as an instructor, serving as a wingman to a student pilot with just over a dozen hours in the jet.

Although most of Webb's days are spent as the de facto mayor of the Navy's East Coast master jet base - setting policy, managing budgets, meeting with city officials - he has continued to fly a few hours most weeks as an instructor with Strike Fighter Squadron 106.

"At this stage of my career, to be able to be flying with the newest guys - the fact I get to do that all is pretty amazing," he said. "I feel very blessed to be able to do it this long."

Few aviators have reached the 4,000-hour milestone in the Hornet and Super Hornet because many transitioned to the plane midway through their careers from other jets, such as the F-14 Tomcat. Webb started flying the Hornet right out of flight school, he said, and he racked up a lot of hours during two tours as an instructor.

According to Philip Carder, a spokesman for Boeing, which builds the F/A-18, two pilots have accumulated 5,000 hours in the plane and 19 have hit the 4,000-hour mark.

On any other day, the flight that marked Webb's 4,000th hour aloft in a Super Hornet would have been unremarkable.

He was at the controls of one jet; Lt. j.g. Chris Trump, who started flying Super Hornets last month, piloted a second.

They took off in the late afternoon and headed out over the ocean on what's called a familiarization flight. They practiced some basic maneuvers - flying together in formation, splitting apart, then joining back up. They had to be back before dark; Trump wasn't yet qualified to fly Super Hornets at night.

After the flight, having just learned of the captain's milestone, Trump shook Webb's hand. "Congratulations, sir, that's great," he said.

The junior pilot was both humbled and awed to be at the controls of a $55 million plane.

Webb was humbled and awed, too, and maybe a little nostalgic.

He thought about where he was for previous milestones in the cockpit: He hit 3,000 hours while flying a combat mission over Afghanistan in 2002. His 2,000th hour came while he was working as a test pilot with the Canadian military. He reached 1,000 hours as an instructor in Jacksonville, Fla.

Webb also thought about the men and women who keep the planes flying. For every hour in the air, he said, enlisted sailors spend 25 to 30 hours maintaining each plane.

Webb - his call sign is "Fish" - may get only a few dozen more hours in the Super Hornet. He plans to retire in March and take a job as a commercial pilot.

Even after all his time in the cockpit, he said, he still has vivid memories of his first few hours at the controls of an F/A-18.

He even seemed a little jealous of Trump, whose performance he was about to grade.

"These guys have their entire career in front of them," Webb said. "I would do it again. I would trade places with any one of them."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com