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Description
- June 2022, Centennial Airport (KAPA) -

An F-18 Hornet made a special stop on its journey from a base on the West Coast to be decommissioned on the East Coast. The pilot was a local and was retiring soon. He made a stop where his brother, who works for the South Metro Fire Department, was also about to retire. They got everyone together for a water cannon salute and a group retirement party for the two brothers and the old jet.

In exchange for hosting their party, they let us keep the aircraft on site for an event the next day. We had already booked an F-16 for that event, so we had the F-16 and F-18 parked like bookends at the entrance to our flight ramp.

It's becoming very hard to find legacy F-18s. The Hornets are on their way out, with the larger Super Hornets now ruling the Navy. It was really a fun opportunity to get up close to this one!

Description
- June 2022, Centennial Airport (KAPA) -

An F-18 Hornet made a special stop on its journey from a base on the West Coast to be decommissioned on the East Coast. The pilot was a local and was retiring soon. He made a stop where his brother, who works for the South Metro Fire Department, was also about to retire. They got everyone together for a water cannon salute and a group retirement party for the two brothers and the old jet.

In exchange for hosting their party, they let us keep the aircraft on site for an event the next day. We had already booked an F-16 for that event, so we had the F-16 and F-18 parked like bookends at the entrance to our flight ramp.

It's becoming very hard to find legacy F-18s. The Hornets are on their way out, with the larger Super Hornets now ruling the Navy. It was really a fun opportunity to get up close to this one!