Third Quarter 2004 Issue.
Raptor Training At Tyndall
By Eric Hehs
Ground Photos By Eric Hehs
Aerial Photos By John Dibbs And MSgt. Mike Ammons
Raptor Training At Tyndall”We’ve been kicking everyone’s butt with
this airplane,” says Lt. Col. Mike Stapleton in an animated briefing
on the F/A-22 Raptor. Stapleton is the operations officer at the 43rd
Fighter Squadron at Tyndall AFB, Florida, the Raptor schoolhouse. As a
senior member of the first training squadron for the F/A-22, he
doesn’t attempt to hide his enthusiasm for the Air Force’s latest
fighter.
“Maneuverability with this airplane is unmatched in its entire
envelope,” he says. “We can put on rapid g onsets and rapid pitch
rates. We can hold very high angles of attack up to sixty degrees. At
slow speeds, we can get nose yaw rates that exceed thirty degrees per
second. No one else can fly like we can in the post-stall
environment. But even in the pre-stall environment and at full combat
weight, we enjoy exceptional maneuverability and thrust-to-weight
ratios. We takeoff in afterburner, and we are airborne in about 800
feet. If we don’t pull the nose up quickly to slow the airplane down,
we can be flying supersonic during climb-out. Fighter pilots love that
kind of power. I’ve never flown a fighter that is so much better than
the airplanes I’m flying against.”
Stapleton spends most of his days preparing to spread his Raptor
knowledge, as well as his enthusiasm. “We are focused on getting the
F/A-22 operational,” he says. “Our part of that is to train the
pilots, maintainers, and air battle managers. When students leave
Tyndall, they will have very few things to do before they take the jet
into combat. We are defining the leading edge for the global strike
concept, for how we train to a larger picture of coalition and joint
warfare. A lot of people walking around this squadron are wearing B-2,
F-117, Rivet Joint, Joint STARS, AWACS, and Space Command patches. We
are working a lot of integration issues with these other platforms and
commands. We want to make sure our tactical ties are tight.”
Raptor Training At TyndallRaptor Evolution In Florida
Personnel at Tyndall began preparing for the F/A-22 well before the
first Raptor was flown to the base in September 2003. The 43rd
Squadron was stood up in October 2002 and moved into its own building
two months later. The 43rd is one of four training squadrons that fall
under the 325th Fighter Wing at Tyndall. The three other the 1st, 2nd,
95th and provide initial F-15 qualification training for new fighter
pilots as well as conversion and recurrency training for existing
pilots. As the designated instructional center for active-duty F-15
pilots, the 325th FW was the obvious training location for the Air
Force’s new air dominance fighter.
Lt. Col. Jeff Harrigian, the commander of the 43rd, came to the unit
from Tyndall’s 95th FS, where he was the operations officer. “We had a
total of twenty-two people in the 43rd when our first F/A-22 arrived
last September,” he explains. “Our initial seven instructor pilots
came a few months earlier so we could get a head start on building a
syllabus. These initial pilots had to learn how to fly the new jet as
well as become subject matter experts in specific areas of employment
and instruction.”
The first two F/A-22 pilots at Tyndall (Harrigian and Maj. Steven
Luczynski) received their flight instruction at Nellis AFB, Nevada,
where F/A-22 tactics development is taking place. Then they began
producing their own Raptor pilots. Maj. Michael Hoepfner, an
experienced F-16 pilot, became the first Tyndall graduate of this
training last January.
Raptor Training At Tyndall”Our first challenge was to understand the
airplane,” notes Harrigian. “Starting a new squadron with an existing
airframe has its challenges, but I can borrow those procedures because
it has been done before. Starting a new squadron with a new aircraft
is much more difficult. No one gave me a playbook.”
Harrigian approached his task by handpicking his immediate
personnel. The first seven instructor pilots are all graduates of the
Air Force’s Fighter Weapons School. Four of these were former Weapons
School instructors. Five come from the F-15, and two from the
F-16. The squadron will grow to an initial staff of seventeen
instructor pilots by the end of 2004, with ten of the total coming
from the F-15C community, three from F-15E, and four from F-16. The
43rd will have a full complement of twenty-eight F/A-22s and about an
equivalent number of instructor pilots when fully staffed. Ten to
fifteen students will be enrolled in the training at any one time.
Raptor Training At TyndallMaintenance Training, Too
Pilot training, however, accounts for only one factor of the Raptor
instructional equation at Tyndall. Future Raptor maintenance
technicians receive their training here as well. The 372nd Training
Squadron Detachment 4 (an AETC unit attached to Sheppard AFB, Texas)
offers sixteen different courses that comprise four main maintenance
branches training avionics, crew chiefs, engines, and weapons.
“Most of our students are transitioning from the F-15 and F-16,” says
TSgt. Kelly Martin, an F/A-22 maintenance instructor at Tyndall. “The
students arrive highly motivated. Most of them have signed up for the
Raptor. They want to see the airplane up close. They’ve seen all the
high-tech Air Force ads on television, and they want to work on this
fighter.”
Raptor Training At TyndallThe expectations of the high-tech television
ads are met with a high-tech, paperless instructional
approach. Students take their courses in classrooms equipped with
flat-panel monitors that display instructional material in full color
and high graphical detail. Animated graphics allow students to
disassemble an engine on the screen. “The computer-aided instruction
reduces the time we need an actual aircraft for training,” notes
Martin. “We can show students the location of assemblies and how to
access them before they see the airplane.”
Much of the training centers around a rugged and weather-resistant
laptop called a portable maintenance aid. “The PMA replaces a library
of technical data with a seven-pound laptop computer,” Martin
says. “We use it in the classroom, on the aircraft, and for any task
the maintainer performs.”
The PMA can be used separately or integrated with the classroom
computer system. Maintainers can perform operation checks on the
aircraft without climbing into the cockpit. Pilots fill out the
aircraft forms on the computer. PMAs will eventually have RF
capability so crew chiefs can transmit information directly to
expediters or maintenance control from the ramp. They will be able to
order parts while standing by the aircraft without going to the
support sections. The maintenance status of a particular airplane can
be checked just by logging on to the system
Raptor Training At Tyndall”The F/A-22 is very easy to work on,” notes
Martin, an experienced maintainer who has been working on the advanced
fighters for about two years. “The jet tells us what is wrong with it
after it lands. It tells us what part needs to be replaced. The
biggest challenge we face involves the access panels. We have to be
more careful with them so we don’t damage the stealthy
coatings. Still, this airplane is a huge step forward in terms of
maintenance.”
Raptor Envy?
More than $60 million of new construction related to the Raptor at
Tyndall so far translates into new squadron buildings, maintenance
hangars, a low-observable repair facility, and additions and updates
to existing training buildings. With all the spending and attention
focused on the F/A-22, Tyndall leadership is quick to emphasize that
it takes an entire team to accomplish the air dominance training
mission.
Raptor Training At Tyndall”When we added the Raptor side to our
academic and simulation building, for example, we refurbished the
Eagle side,” explains Brig. Gen Larry New, the commander of the 325th
Fighter Wing. “We took the same approach with our maintenance
facility. We renovated the entire building instead of just the F/A-22
section. We want everyone who works at Tyndall to feel that they are
part of the same team. We are going to be operating the Eagle in the
Air Force for the better part of the next two decades. We can’t forget
about it or give it some second-class status.”
New also realizes that while the F/A-22 may enjoy a high profile
within the Air Force, many are relatively unaware of the new
fighter. “We need to educate people about the Raptor,” he says. “A lot
of people in high places around the country don’t even realize the
F/A-22 is flying. We are well into fielding the weapon system. We need
to remind them why we are building the Raptor and what the aircraft
means to the future of the United States in terms of our warfighting
capability and our ability to defend our interests.”
The Raptor’s appearance at Tyndall has generated more curiosity than
envy from F-15 pilots at the base. “Many Eagle pilots have flown
against us and they want to understand the performance of airplane the
how it maneuvers,” explains Harrigian, who ferried the first Raptor
from the factory to Tyndall. “The next biggest question I get relates
to avionics. F-15 pilots want to know what the cockpit looks like and
how the airplane presents information to the pilot. They ask if it is
easy to fly, if it flies like an F-15.”
Raptor Training At TyndallHarrigian’s own first impressions? “This
airplane is incredible,” he says. “The performance is awesome. The
first time I rolled the airplane I thought, ‘wow this thing is
responsive.’ It is like flying a Cadillac that reacts like a
Porsche. The cockpit is very comfortable. The F/A-22 is a heavy
airplane that flies like a small airplane. The takeoff roll is
impressive. A standard military power takeoff in the Raptor feels like
an afterburner takeoff in the Eagle. I got used to the side stick
placement after about two rides. A more significant difference is the
sensitivity of the controls. Ever so slight of a movement with the
stick and the flight controls react immediately. My stick is
constantly moving when I fly an Eagle, especially when flying close
formation. The stick is dead still in the Raptor unless I’m
maneuvering aggressively.”
Mixing Mindsets
Instructor pilots at the 43rd, aside from learning the F/A-22, must
deal with a clash of cultures of sorts as those with differences in
reflexes, thought patterns, and terminology ingrained from years of
flying either the F-15 or the F-16 work together to form a common
syllabus for a completely new aircraft type.
“We see some terminology differences between F-15 and F-16 pilots,”
notes Harrigian. “They have differing mind-sets about what mutual
support means. The F-16 is a small airplane and F-16 pilots need to
stay closer together to keep each other in sight. Eagle drivers, on
the other hand, with their larger airplanes, tend to get farther away
from each other.”
Raptor Training At Tyndall”An F-16 pilot thinks differently about
tactical problems than an F-15 pilot,” Stapleton adds. “As an F-15
pilot, I don’t have as many limits on aircraft identification or
weapons. I rely on beyond-visual-range identification and lots of
AMRAAMs. My biggest tactical problem involves airborne threats
defeating my missiles. F-16 pilots, who didn’t have identification
capability until recently, are more concerned with getting their bombs
on target and getting out unscathed.”
“The Raptor enjoys the best of both worlds,” says Harrigian. “F-16 and
F-15 pilots might recommend different approaches for a given
scenario. We ask if either approach applies to the Raptor. We have
found that bits and pieces from each are appropriate. We also often
take completely different approaches thanks to this airplane’s
capabilities. We want to use lessons learned from legacy platforms,
but we don’t want to hang onto them for no reason. We try to get all
of these mind-sets on the table and create something that we can call
the F/A-22 paradigm.”
The foundation of that new paradigm relates to doing away with sensor
management tasks that demand a lot of time and effort in current
fighter platforms. “F-16, F-15, and F/A-18 pilots spend a lot of time
working sensor management, that is, making sure their radar search
volumes are located in the right airspace,” says Stapleton. “They have
to work mutual support issues with the sensors and populate their
datalinks with the right information. Seventy-five percent of their
effort goes into sensor management and twenty-five percent goes into
actually employing systems the getting the airplane where it needs to
be and putting the weapon on a target.
Raptor Training At Tyndall”The Raptor is 180-degrees different,”
Stapleton continues. “The airplane does so much of the work at a
digitized level behind the screen that I, as a weapon system operator,
can sit back and think about the kind of operational effects that the
commanders want to achieve. I have time to consider how to provide the
right amount of mutual support to the other joint coalition
forces. Not spending all my time thinking where the radar should go,
in and of itself, is going to break open a whole new dynamic in air
warfare. We will see this airplane reach its true potential as soon as
some of our younger guys start operating it. They will come up with
stuff that we haven’t even considered.”
New Airframe, New Skills
Instructor pilots at the 43rd have to build a syllabus for generating
new pilots who will break those old paradigms. “We’re not just flying
a new airplane,” Harrigian explains. “We are determining the skills
required to fly the airplane. We have to create a building block
approach for teaching someone to operate the Raptor. The F/A-22
performs significantly different from an F-15 and an F-16. So we spend
some time in the early training to get the pilots accustomed to these
differences. We show them how the airplane reacts to inputs and how it
flies throughout the envelope. Then we fly one against one against a
dissimilar aircraft. We’re using the same generic training philosophy
that we use for the F-15 and F-16. We build upon what the student has
already learned and then add another task each step of the way.”
Tyndall pilots are working on syllabi as they prepare for the summer
arrival of their next seven instructor pilots, as well as for the fall
arrival of the first students who will form the first operational
F/A-22 squadron at Langley AFB, Virginia. The basic course, called the
B-course, will last about six months and is designed for a pilot right
out of a T-38 and lead-in fighter training. Experienced fighter pilots
take a three-month transition course. (The unit will also offer a
separate transition course, basically instrument rating instruction,
for senior officers.) A separate two-month course, upgrading
instructor pilots, prepares instructors for teaching at the 43rd. All
student pilots go through about eight 1.5-hour sessions in an F/A-22
simulator before strapping into the Raptor cockpit.
Raptor Training At Tyndall”That first flight can be fairly
intimidating,” Stapleton says. “Working through the PMA, instead of
touching actual Air Force forms with grease on them, can put off your
sense of balance. But I quickly found the F/A-22 to be a forgiving,
powerful, and capable airplane.”
The superior capability of the F/A-22 will have a dramatic effect on
training. “When I prepare a wingman to go to war in an F-15, I have to
face the fact that the F-15 is at parity with some existing
aircraft. None of them can beat the F-15 in all performance dynamics,
but a lot of potential adversaries have two or three advantages that I
have to take into account. We can beat them because we have better
training. An F/A-22, on the other hand, gives me vastly superior
capability. So my job as an instructor is to make sure our pilots
perform the Raptor to its full potential.
“Getting a new airframe is an event to be celebrated,” Stapleton
concludes in his briefing. “As you can see from our 1978 vintage F-15s
sitting out here, new airframes don’t come around very often. Their
software, however, evolves. The Raptors you see on the ramp today are
awesome. Even with an elementary version of the software that we are
flying, we are still kicking everyone’s butt. That tells me that this
airplane will only get better.”
Eric Hehs is the editor of Code One.
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