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F-22 'Shows its Stuff' at Maxwell

  • Published
  • By Carl Bergquist
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  The pilot of an F-22 Raptor from Langley Air Force Base, Va., was happy Tuesday with a practice flight here at Maxwell. The flight was in preparation for the following day's National Security Forum aerial demonstration of the Air Force's newest jet fighter.

"Everything went great. It was a great practice and the Alabama weather was just perfect," Maj. Dave Skalicky said. "Maxwell gave us excellent support that allowed us to get in the great practice, and we are ready for NSF tomorrow."

The major, a pilot with more about 1,000 flying hours in the F-15 Eagle and more than 370 hours in the F-22, said the NSF demonstration is one of 16 performances the team will conduct this year. He said they came to Maxwell directly from a show at Andrews AFB, Washington D.C.

"A lot of people don't get to see how powerful and what a great aircraft the F-22 really is, and the good thing about these demos is we are able to showcase the aircraft's combat capability," Major Skalicky said. "Currently, F-22s are involved in homeland defense operations. We fly missions everyday to protect the skies over the United States."

Tech. Sgt. Gabriel Sistrunk, who joined the demonstration team in 2007 and is team chief, described the practice flight as "a very good performance." He said the team was looking forward to tomorrow.

"The pilot can do a lot of great things in the air with this aircraft," he said. "As a team, we always triple-check ourselves, but the high competency of the demo team is excellent. You couldn't ask for a group of guys better than this."

Capt. Brock Lane, the demonstration team safety officer, said the practice flight went "incredible well," and the team felt the setup at Maxwell "works really well" for the aerial demonstration.

"Thankfully, my job on the team is usually extremely boring," he said. "The demo execution comes first, but we constantly scan the skies in case small aircraft accidently stray into our airspace."

The captain said the finale of the aerial demonstration is the heritage flight which includes the F-22, an F-16 Fighting Falcon and a World War II vintage P-51 Mustang flying in formation together. He said it is an "exciting sight," and the F-22 can easily fly slow enough to accommodate the prop-driven P-51.

"The F-22 has giant flight controls, leading-edge flaps and thrust vectors that helps it reduce its airspeed to very slow speeds," he said, "It is a triple-redundancy flight control system that allows the aircraft to do some amazing things in flight."

The aerial demonstration occurred Wednesday as part of the week-long National Security Forum hosted by Air University's Spaatz Center for Officer Education. The Secretary of the Air Force sponsored forum brings civilians from all walks of life and professions to Maxwell-Gunter each year to acquaint them with all that the Air Force is doing regarding national security.