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Student pilots graduate straight to Raptor

The first student pilots to go straight from training jets into the service’s most advanced fighter graduated from F-22A Raptor training Nov. 1 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

Capt. Marcus McGinn and 1st Lts. Dan Dickenson, Ryan Shelhorse and Austin B. Skelley made history after eight months of intense study and flight training, an Air Force news release said.

“Training these new guys coming in with no experience flying fighters, except for just a little bit in the F-16 prior to this course, was definitely a new experience for me,” said Capt. Jonathan Gration, a flight commander with the 43rd Fighter Squadron and one of the instructor pilots who taught the four during the Raptor basic course.

The course included 88.5 hours of simulator training, 27 academic tests and 62.4 hours of flight training.

“We didn’t really have a bar to compare them against,” Gration said. “We didn’t expect them to pick up on the advanced concepts of flying F-22s as they did. I think these guys are more than ready to leave this course and go out to the combat Air Force and join an operational fighter squadron.”

The students were also flying in new territory.

“The most difficult part of the training was learning to make higher-level mission decisions that are typically, in other fighters, made only by experienced flight leads,” Skelley said.

Because there are no two-seat trainer versions of the F-22, the students’ first F-22 flights were solos, with instructors flying close by.

“[During] the first flight, I was definitely nervous while we were taxiing out on the runway,” Dickenson said. “But once we took off, everything kind of settled in. The training kicked in, and it was a super exciting flight.”