When in the Course of Human Events….
Special Article, written by: Mark DeVecchis
On July 4th we celebrate our Declaration of Independence as a free and sovereign nation. What resulted from that, and the subsequent Revolutionary War, was the longest written Constitution in history. We now celebrate as the most successful and powerful Nation on Earth. It hasn’t come without its trials and tribulations however, and many time soldiers were called to defend her.
For July 4th, this year we will celebrate the forming of our Nation and its freedoms, but we will also celebrate a special person, from Lewistown, that you should know about, who is playing an instrumental part on keeping our Nation alert and free – and proclaiming the sound of freedom the world over. That person is Naval Aviator and Test Pilot LT Maxwell “Aussie” Wilson.
On December 17, 1903, American brothers Orville, and Wilbur Wright made the first “flying machine”. A double winger that weighed 604.1 lbs. with a 40’ wingspan with a reciprocating engine. It actually got off the ground and flew – not far, but it flew. In October of 1947, Air Force officer and test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier (700 MPH) in a jet. In 1969, we saw on television when former Naval Aviator and test pilot graduate Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and said those immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Huge “first accomplishments” in aviation by Americans.
For the last 6 years, Max Wilson has gone to work in a unique office located in the cockpit of an F/A-18 “Super Hornet” fighter jet (F/A Stands for Fighter/Attack).
As opposed to Wilbur and Orville’s plane, the F/A 18’s specifications are:
Wingspan 37 feet 5 inches
Length 56 feet
Height 15 feet 3.5 inches
Speed 1,360 mph plus
Ceiling 50,000 feet
Power plant Two 16,000-pound-thrust GE F404GE-400 low-bypass turbofan engines
Armament One 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan six-barrel cannon with 570 rounds, plus up to 17,000 pounds ordnance, including bombs, rockets, missiles and drop tanks on nine external points
Lewistown Naval Aviator Max Wilson realized his dream of being a fighter pilot. From his office, he has seen the Wright Memorial, Cape Canaveral, and the Statue of Liberty; he has flown from and landed on aircraft carriers hundreds of times; he has flown over several countries around the world; and he has flown into a combat zone with a fully loaded array of armament. Max has lived in six states having moved eight times in eight years. Max has visited nine different countries in his service to our country. He has flown over 1200 hours in a combination of 20 different aircraft. He has launched from and landed on 4 of the 11 U.S. Naval Aircraft Carriers. He has a total of 244 traps (Trap: an arrested landing aboard a ship), nearly 100 at night, arguably the most complicated and dangerous maneuvers in aviation.
In 2021 Max took his dream to the next level, he applied for and was accepted into US Naval test pilot school (USNTPS) Class 161 at NAS Patuxent River, Lexington Park, MD. Receiving his Test Patch in August of 2022. While in test pilot school, Max flew several aircraft from gliders, to helicopters to modified and historical military planes to evaluate performance and mission systems. His studies included gathering observational data during test flights, documenting whether an aircraft is operating properly, and making recommendations for improvements and corrections. At 30 years of age Max Wilson graduated from the US Naval test pilot school officially and became a US Naval test pilot.
Max is currently stationed at NAS China Lake, in Ridgecrest, CA and is assigned to Squadron VX-31, the” Dust Devils”. His duties include weapon systems testing for the F/A 18 Super Hornet.
So how did this all come about?
Max was born in 1992, the son of Jeff and Robin Wilson of Lewistown. As far back as Max and his parents can remember his dream was to fly. A Lego jet model he built as a child still sits on the bookshelf in his bedroom in his parent’s home in Lewistown.
Growing up Max would, on a regular basis, go out to Mifflin County Airport with his grandfather just to watch the planes take off and land, the gliders soar over Big Valley, and to talk with the pilots. He wanted to fly and learn everything he could about becoming a pilot.
Max graduated from Lewistown Area High School in 2010. In talking with teachers and guidance counselor, they found it difficult to find classes challenging enough for him. He could have skipped his last year of high school and entered college. However, Max had other
plans. He wanted to fly.
So how did his career path begin?
Unabashedly Max will tell you he loves his career, but he will also tell you it took a lot of hard work, dedication, and determination to get there. He will also tell you there were a few breaks and some luck to be able to sit in the seat of an F/A 18.
On his sixteenth birthday, Max’s mother & father took him to the airport – little known to Max, this birthday present was going to be the “official” start to his avia-
tion career. Arrangements had been made with a flight instructor to give him not only his first lesson, but all his lessons. It is interesting to hear him tell it – Max saw Mike Buffington’s plane (a Cessna 150) sitting at the fuel pumps, which wasn’t unusual, but not typical at that time – when a gentleman Max had never met came up to him and said, “You must be Max. My name is Ross VanHorne, and I will be your flight instructor.” Shocked, he was thrilled to learn from his parents they would pay for his first lesson and subsequent lessons and plane rental, if he liked it, until he received his private pilot’s license. The cost of the instructor would be on Max – he would need to work and earn the money to fly. His grandfather, Robert “Bob” Wilson put Max to work immediately at his home – mowing, cutting brush, helping with plantings – anything that needed to be done. He also bussed tables at the Downtown OIP and Grille. Working and earning his money to realize his goal would require a lot of time and commitment. The die was cast as he settled in for his 40 hours of training to earn his Private Pilot’s License. This takes a lot more work than one might imagine. Ground school involves a lot of reading, learning, and studying. Everything from mapping out your route (there are “air maps”) to calculations for wind,
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fuel, flight path, elevations and being certified with the radio and making sure the weather is going to be good. Even with modern equipment, there is a lot to learn to earn that VFR (Visual Flight Rules) pilots certificate requiring a minimum of 40 hours. Max earned his pilot’s license before he graduated high school.
While working on his pilot’s license, Max attended a Penn State – Michigan football game at Beaver Stadium, one of many he attended growing up. This one was special, as there were two F/A -18C jets that executed a flyover.
When he saw the jets, he turned to his father and said, “I want to fly those,” to which his father responded, somewhat sarcastically, “Well you’ll have to join the military fly those.” That statement set a goal in Max’s mind. After talking with family and friends and researching, Max applied for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corp (NROTC) scholarship, which he was awarded his senior year.
In 2010 he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh majoring in Mechanical Engineering but also as a Midshipman Fourth Class in the Navy as part of Carnegie Mellon’s Naval ROTC Unit. His father will tell you his commitment to the Navy came as no surprise to his parents. Despite his desire and commitment to fly, Max will still tell you that chance and luck helped with selections that went his way. First, he had to be selected as a Naval Aviator Candidate. There are no guarantees for selection – the Navy also needs officers for its submarines, surface ships, special forces, and for the mission systems on aircraft. At the start of his senior year, he was informed he had been selected to become a pilot.
Max graduated from CMU with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (4th in his class) and a minor in History on May 18th, 2014. He was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy the next day. Two weeks later he was driving to Pensacola, Florida to Naval Air Station Pensacola, “The Gateway of Naval Aviation.”
His official training began.
Naval Flight training took 2 and a half years, where he would need to complete:
• Aviation Preflight Indoctrination – 6 weeks at NAS Pensacola learning introductory aviation topics and water survival. Completion of the course earns them the right to wear a flight suit.
• Primary Training – 7 months at NAS Whiting Field, Milton Florida, for 40 hours in a Turboprop aircraft. Assigned to VT-2, for basic operation, aerobatic flying, formation flying and section checkpoint – entered pipeline for F/A-18E/F/G aircraft.
• Advanced Training – 1.5 years at NAS Kingsville, Kingsville Texas, assigned to VT-22, the “Golden Eagles” for turbojet training that included basic jet aircraft operation, instrumentation, and field carrier landing.
Additionally, Air to Surface training, advanced and tactical formation flying, basic fighter maneuver (fighting against other aircraft). Advanced training culminated with a trip to an aircraft carrier where he did his first 10 arrested landings, or traps aboard the USS George H.W. Bush.
After completing Advanced Training, Max earned the coveted wings of gold in October 2016, and officially became a Naval Aviator.
But his training wasn’t over. He learned to fly his operational aircraft, single and two-seat F/A-18 Super Hornets, at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, VA. During this training he learned to conduct all variants of air to surface and air to air missions and completed 12-day traps and 8-night traps aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to become carrier qualified. Only at this point was he sent to VFA-211, the “Fighting Checkmates,” an F/A-18F squadron in Virginia Beach, VA. Max tells me, “After two and a half years of flight training I had made it to the fleet.”
But still, the training wasn’t over. He became qualified in all aspects of Strike Fighter operation. Air to surface becoming qualified to conduct close air support of our troops on the ground, and to employ free-fall weapons, laser guided weapons, GPS guided weapons, anti-radiation missiles, and strafing with the gun. Also conduct beyond visual range and within visual range aerial combat and to employ active radar missiles, infrared seeking missiles as well as the gun.
He has been deployed twice onboard the USS Harry S Truman. His first deployment was in support of “Operation Inherent Resolve” operating out of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and flights into Syria to combat ISIS. He also spent time operating off the coast of France and Iceland and above the Arctic Circle off the coast of Norway. He has been to Souda Bay, Greece, Marseille, France; Portsmouth England; and Lisbon, Portugal.
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His second deployment again took him on board the Aircraft Carrier Truman. This time into the Gulf of Oman, via the Suez Canal, to support combat operation in Afghanistan and counter Iran operations. He has flown into Afghanistan on a combat mission, which required multiple trips to the tanker to conduct airborne refueling. Because of weather, Max never saw Afghanistan.
During Covid he was on one of the only two “clean” carriers the Navy had and was ordered to stay at sea. He couldn’t be home, so he – trained – more. After his second deployment, his squadron was selected to become the first Navy Super Hornet squadron to transition from the two-seater variant to the single-seater jet.
In April of 2021 came United States Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River in Lexington Park, MD. He was honored to be following the path and training in the shadow of some of the greatest NASA astronauts and aviators in US history; those such as Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, John Glenn, and Jim Lovell. The hallways of the school are lined with silver plaques, one for each class, engraved with the names of every former graduate, including the names I just mentioned. To have his name join the ranks of such distinguished former graduates was an incredible motivator for Max! Each day brought five hours of formal classroom instruction – mechanics, aerodynamics, stability and control, electrical engineering, signals, radar theory, electro optical theory and more. The rest of the day consisted of flying test events and reporting on the results. “Half a day in class, half the day flying, and half the day writing” is how Max described his experience. In August of 2022, he graduated and received his Test Pilot School Graduate Patch, officially becoming a Naval Test Pilot.
Max met his wife Megan in 2015 through a fellow Naval Aviator in Kingsville, TX and got married in 2017 while at FRS (Fleet Replacement Squadron that trains Aviators, among others, on the front-line planes they are to fly, in Virginia Beach). Megan comes from a family of Naval Aviators as well and understands the sacrifices put on their lives and family. During the first 3 years of marriage, he was home for only 14 of 36 months.
When asked of his overall experience, Max states that “the Navy has been both the hardest and the greatest experience of my life. I have had some difficult lows but countless ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences that were only made possible by the Navy. To be trusted with sole command and operation of such a complex and powerful aircraft and weapons system is a massive responsibility, but also an experience like none other.”
Max’s future is extremely bright. While he will have a myriad of choices on what to do with his future, I personally can see Max expanding the realm of going “where no man has gone.” I think his afterburners have just been lit. The world and outside of it, are his future. Perhaps his just for the reaching out.
I could see Max being an astronaut, continuing as a test pilot, commercial airline pilot, or working for one of the major firms that design and build fighter jets. But whatever path he takes, it will be a continuation of his dream, of his part in keeping America free – and his dedication to our future. A once in a lifetime career that is demanding, exciting, exhilarating, sometimes terrifying, and as Max would tell you, unbelievable.
When in the Course of Human Events…in 1776 was a bold and daring dream of self-government, with a lot of obstacles to overcome and an education to be learned. The history of self-governance was an educational experiment and experience on self-rule that to this point has been extremely successful. The history of flight is one of those educational experiences today that continues to grow beyond the bounds that would have ever been imagined in 1776. Max Wilson is today, part of the Human Event of the history of flight and continues to broaden and expand that knowledge succinctly stated in Star Trek, to, “boldly go where no man has gone before…”
Personally, I would like to thank Max Wilson, and his parents Jeff and Robin for providing information for this article. It was truly a personal honor and pleasure to tell Max’s story. I hope readers will appreciate that from our own small community, a Lewistown native, is contributing and playing an important part on the world stage and the future of aviation.
Should you have the chance to watch an F/A 18 take off in person or even on YouTube, turn up the volume! As all Naval Aviators will tell you, “That is the sound of Freedom”!
“In my research, the mantra for these military pilots is Humble, Credible and Approachable” and Max truly exemplifies that Mantra. May God Bless America, Max, and all our Military soldiers!
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