[Photo] F-22 Raptor zooming through the clouds during demo training

March 16, 2015 Military Aviation

David Cenciotti

An F-22 Raptor during an annual demo training at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

The annual Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course is an annual four-day training event for civilian and military pilots who are given the opportunity to practice flying in formation together for the upcoming air show season.

Held at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, since 2001, the course is attended by pilots of historic aircraft, like the P-51 Mustang, the P-40 Warhawk, the P-38 Lightning, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the F-86 Sabre, as well as fighter jocks with their F-16 Fighting Falcon or F-22 Raptor.

Specific training is required to perform formation flying, even more so when several aircraft types with much different performance are involved.

On top of this article you can see an interesting photograph of a Raptor cutting through the clouds during a demo training flight.

Here below you can see the aircaft flying in formation over Davis-Monthan AFB on Feb. 26.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Roland Lawrence says:

March 17, 2015 at 8:16 PM

Its what you need for an airshow. Twin engines, full reheat :)
CrashingOut says:

March 22, 2015 at 12:58 AM

This is, the best possible way to burn Dino blood. Ever. Only way it could be better is if the ’71 was part of the demo. Jet Fuel, AvGas, and Triethylborane….
WpnsLoader175 says:

March 23, 2015 at 4:42 AM

I thought that “Dear Leader” banned all airshows as per “Sequestration” rules. So what are they practicing for? I have seen the F-22 Demo before they put restrictions (before they learned the Empennage has major cracks and they started to restrict the G loading in certain flight regimes) It was a sight to behold. Cobra, Hook, Bell, and even hovering on RAW thrust, then accelerating and gaining altitude shortly before using vectored thrust to nose over (massive negative G) and into a dive. If I had to bet, I would say the FLICS control software for the Demo Birds is more like the System Development jets in that it loosens the flight control laws being applied, which allows for more instability and greater risk taking. Either way entertaining as all He!!.