Hornet thrill for Shuttle skipper

US Air Force test pilot and NASA astronaut Colonel Pam Melroy with Flight Lieutenants Shane Calliess and Dougal Dow, test pilots with the Aircraft Research and Development Unit at RAAF Base Edinburgh, on the flightline before her Hornet flight. Photo by CPL Pete Gammie

By Deanna Nott

SHE’S flown Atlantis into space, she clocked up more than 200 hours of combat duty flying refuellers in the 1991 Gulf War, and now NASA pilot Colonel Pamela Melroy has taken off in one of the Aircraft Research and Development Unit’s (ARDU) F/A-18 Hornets.

One may expect Colonel Melroy to be blase about a Hornet ride considering her vast experience.

“The truth is that I am a test pilot and I’ve never met an aircraft I didn’t like,” said the likeable 41-year-old, who flew space shuttle Atlantis on its last mission to the International Space Station.

“As far as I’m concerned the offer to go flying in anything, whether it’s a Piper Cub or a Hornet or a Shuttle, I’m on. I love flying.

“Flying is my life. It’s who I am. So the opportunity is something I couldn’t miss.”

The last time COL Melroy flew in a Hornet was at California’s Air Force Test Pilot School in 1991.

“Everything on board this aircraft is pretty familiar to me. Believe it or not the seat buckle is the hardest thing. It doesn’t look like any other seat buckle I have put on,” she laughed.

A highlight of her day at RAAF Base Edinburgh was chatting with ARDU’s test pilots and “sharing some old war stories”.

“It’s a terrible thing to let a test pilot loose in front of a bunch of people because we can’t wait to tell all of our stories,” she said.

COL Melroy, who is one of only two female pilots at NASA, expects to return to space in 2005 as the Commander of the space shuttle.

She visited Adelaide at the invitation of the South Australian Space School. The visit was sponsored by the Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith Fund to celebrate the centenary of powered flight.

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