September 09, 1998 - LEJ and I flew the Hawk for the first time. The mission was an air-to-ground attack sortie flown in order to train new danish Forward Air Controllers (FACs). The FAC had previously guided T-17 Saab Supporters in for attack and was now ready for faster aircraft. Previously the Royal Danish Air Force used pilots as FACs but due to the pilot situation we now use non-pilots. It takes quite some training for people, who have never flown before, to guide an attack pilot in, when he is doing 420-480 knots ground speed. It was quite obvious to us because some of the FACs would use terms such as: "Target is located west of large tree in tree-line". And when you looked out the window you would see several treelines and by the time you had found the right one you had already passed the target. But the sortie was also one of the first ones with faster aircraft and a week later the FACs were much better and moved on to guiding the F16s in for attack. LEJ and I were impressed with the Royal Air Force because they spend a lot of time taking passengers with them - good show !!!