Australian exchange pilot recalls road to Raptor cockpit

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  With his left eye covered, a teenage William Grady peered across the examination room at a stark eye chart, his dream of becoming a Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot hanging in the balance.

"E," he said tentatively, identifying the 20/200 letter easily enough before moving on. "F, P, T ... O ... Z ..."
The high-school student slowed down. As he moved down the chart and drew closer to the 20/20 line, the letters blurred into indistinguishable blobs. Despite practicing for weeks to translate the shapes of those blobs into actual letters, Grady would fail the eye examination at the Newcastle, New South Wales, recruiting station.

His dream was gone.

So how is it that, today, Flight Lt. William "Gradz" Grady, RAAF exchange pilot, flies the F-22 Raptor with the 90th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson?

The answer to that question involves the story of his RAAF upbringing, his determination to succeed at every level, and a move to an Alaska base as alien to the Australian as a theoretical outpost on the dark side of the moon.

'RAAF brat'
Grady grew up under wide Australian skies filled with the thunder of RAAF jets. His father and F-111 Aardvark pilot, Air Commodore Anthony Grady, is the commander of the RAAF Air Combat Group, which administers the air force's fighter and bomber aircraft.

The younger Grady said he knew he wanted to be a fighter pilot from a very young age, an aspiration that created tension in the family since the elder Grady flew the F-111 - a strike bomber.

Grady's dream became at risk in Year 9 (roughly equivalent to sophomore year), when he discovered he was nearsighted. At the time, RAAF policy didn't allow for myopic pilots, even if their vision was surgically corrected. The aspiring aviator said he was devastated.

"It's demoralizing when you work that hard and you had it in your head for so long," Grady said. "It was a low point."

After failing his eye exam at the recruiting station, Grady decided to study medicine at the University of Newcastle Medical School with the aim of becoming a doctor. Though medicine is certainly a respected profession, Grady said he was settling.

"I never really thought of anything else other than being a pilot the entire time I was growing up, until it became clear it just wasn't going to happen," he recalled. "I was definitely beginning to grow into the prospect of being a doctor, though."

Even during his studies, Grady said he called the recruiter to see if the policies changed. Every two months he made the phone call, and every two months he was given the bad news: the policy stood.

Then the policy changed.

Foresight is 20/20
Grady said he immediately stopped his studies, abandoning any ambition of becoming a doctor and rededicating all of his efforts into becoming a fighter pilot.

He went to Sydney to have laser eye surgery on his 18th birthday, the earliest he could legally get the procedure done.

The tiny bits of cornea removed by the surgeon's laser would have an enormous impact on Grady's life. The recruiting office's once-fuzzy letters came sharply into focus. But the eye exam was only the first hurdle on the road to a fighter cockpit.

The next step for Grady was the RAAF Flight Screening Program, which is a number of academic and psychological tests as well as leadership and group exercises. A highly competitive process, candidates are ranked before proceeding to the next stage of FSP.

During the screening process, selection officials asked Grady if he was open to becoming an Army or Navy helicopter pilot, broadening his career options and increasing his odds of becoming a military aviator. He wasn't having any of it. It was fighter pilot or nothing; he was all in.

"I think that is what attracted [the selection committee] to me, was I had a very clear drive [to become a fighter pilot]," Grady said. "That drive might not be there among other 18-year-olds."

Grasping a dream
The RAAF recruiting website pulls no punches in describing where fighter pilots fit in the service's pantheon of occupations, and how difficult it is for a candidate to eventually get his name stenciled on a fighter.

"Fighter pilots are the elite of the pilot jobs," a brief on the RAAF website asserts. "Becoming a fighter pilot is difficult - for both men and women. The fighter pilot selection and training process is comprehensive, spanning four years on average ... This ensures the professionalism and very high standards of the select few who graduate as qualified fighter pilots."

Grady started pilot training with the rather pedestrian piston-engined CT/4 Airtrainer, in which he learned basic pilot skills. The CT/4 covers a relatively sedate two miles per minute, which granted Grady ample time to focus on throttle and control-surface adjustments.
Grady then graduated to the turboprop PC-9, which doubles the closing speed to four miles per minute, stretching the student's capability to cope with time compression.

Just when Grady was getting comfortable with the PC-9, the student pilot progressed to the Hawk 127, a jet-engined fighter trainer capable of covering seven miles per minute. During this phase, Grady began tactical application for air-to-air and air-to-ground sorties.

"By that stage, you have progressed to the point where it's just the next step," the pilot said. "I never found it beyond anyone's capabilities, but you're always challenged and that's the beauty of it."

Finally, Grady was able to train on a real fighter: the F-18 Hornet. Now called the "Classic Hornet" in light of the newer, larger F-18 Super Hornet, the twin-engine multirole fighter originally entered service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the early 80s before being selected by the RAAF to replace their French-made Mirage III fighters.

Capable of speeds in excess of Mach 1.8, Grady said the Hornet increased piloting complexity tenfold when compared to the Hawk trainer. It was the challenge he had kept his eye on his entire life.

'Seek and strike'
RAAF Base Tindal is located in the middle of the savanna plains of Australia's Northern Territory. Located nine miles away is the quiet town of Katherine, population 6,094 as of the 2011 census. Beyond the two interconnected communities, there isn't a whole lot of note.

Remote as the base may be, Grady said his first assignment there with RAAF No. 75 Squadron was the ideal experience for a junior Hornet driver.

"If you want to learn how to be a fighter pilot, the Northern Territory is definitely the place to do it, because we have airspace 200 miles wide by 600 miles deep, surface to 60,000 feet supersonic, chaff flare, no restrictions," he explained. "It's definitely the place to learn the art of being a fighter pilot, and a lot of the major Australia exercises happen in that airspace."

During his assignment at Tindal, Grady met his wife, Flight Lt. Christine Grady, an air traffic control officer.

Fighter combat instructor
Flying in close formation with his wingman, Grady's eyes popped back and forth between his radar screen and the horizon. Fast-moving dots indicated bogeys rapidly closing for the merge.

The RAAF Hornets were decked out with inboard and outboard pylons loaded with heavy radar-guided missiles, slowing down the F-18s and negatively affecting their maneuverability. Not the ideal situation to be in for a dogfight during the basic-fighter-maneuver (BFM) phase of the Fighter Combat Instructor Course - the RAAF's equivalent of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School - at RAAF Base Williamtown.

The inbound jets passed under the Hornets at blinding speed - now identified as U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from Eielson Air Force Base's 18th Aggressor Squadron flying as simulated enemy "red air." The F-16s, better known as Vipers, were in a lightly armed configuration, adding to their already-considerable thrust and maneuver advantage over the F-18s. Grady calls the 18th AS F-16s "big mouths," denoting the fighter's more powerful General Electric engine and its signature intake.

"We were pretty much in the worst-possible configuration for the BFM - deliberately to stack the odds against us," Grady said. "That was a big learning curve, fighting clean Block 52 big-mouth F-16s, when you are the most draggy, small-engined fighter you can think of. But in the end, it was great. We learned a lot of lessons and we also had a lot of wins - even in that configuration."

The scenario perhaps typified Grady's often arduous journey toward realizing his goals. The process was competitive for him to become a fighter pilot. The process was competitive for him to become a fighter combat instructor. And soon enough, Grady would enter into another competition for a key RAAF billet.

Raptor bound
The 90th Fighter Squadron, now stationed  at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, has continuously hosted an Australian exchange pilot since 1942. The fact the exchange currently offers F-22 Raptor experience is an added bonus, since the Raptor - the only fully operational fifth-generation fighter in the world - is not exported. The billet was offered to any fighter pilot who had a lead qualification for a four-fighter formation.

"Which meant that everyone and his dog put the application in to do the F-22 exchange, because it's definitely the highest-profile exchange we have in Australia," Grady explained. "Everyone wants to fly the F-22, being the machine that it is. I am very lucky and honored to be selected."
Grady said the RAAF chose him partly because he had a great deal of fighter experience while still being junior enough for the exchange to pay dividends for years.

Grady reported to the 43rd Fighter Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, for F-22 conversion. Though the Raptor is unlike anything he had every flown, the Australian pilot said learning a new airframe was nothing new.

"That's the great thing about being a fighter pilot: it's never boring," Grady said. "You're always going to get challenged at every opportunity and no two days are the same. Going to F-22s is no different than going to F-18s, or going to the PC-9. The whole way, it's one step up at a time."
Because he had more than 500 hours' of fighter experience, Grady was able to attend the most expedited of the transition course's four available training tracks.

"That's the good part of the course is it acknowledges fast-jet time, and they streamline the process in a very efficient way," he said. "Instructors there are very proficient at recognizing what your experiences are and working out what is important."

Something new for Grady was training with a single-seat fighter. Every aircraft type he had trained up to this point had room for an instructor pilot to mentor and take the controls if necessary. The Australian would spend a lot of time in an F-22 simulator before taking to the air for his first solo ride. As close as the computerized-mockup can get to flying the Raptor, nothing could compare to the real thing.

"When you put the throttles up for the first time, and you actually feel the amount of power the aircraft has, no simulator training can prepare you for that," he said. "Even having thought about how much it was going to be, you get shocked at the thrust. That's a massive plus."

The Last Frontier
As exotic as Australia may seem to most Americans, perhaps few things are as exotic to an Australian as snow and the prospect of the mercury dropping to temperatures far below freezing.

"It's definitely a shock to the system," Grady said. "We talked about it, and we're thinking of it as one big adventure. Small things like shoveling snow in the driveway are big to us.

"It's a culture shock coming from 40 degrees Celsius - 100 degrees in Fahrenheit - heat in Australia. We want to get as much stuff done as possible, so we can go home and say that we've experienced the Alaskan lifestyle to the fullest."

Christine is on a leave of absence from the RAAF, allowing her to focus on raising their 9-month-old son, Jayden, during the pilot's three-year tour at JBER.

Grady will be busy during the ensuing months working to earn pilot upgrades, which will allow him to give back to the 90th FS as an instructor.
"The intent of the exchange is Australia learns from the USAF and - hopefully, by seeing a different point of view or a different way of thinking - USAF, and particularly the 90th, can glean information from how we do business in Australia as well," he said.

For now, Grady asks a lot of questions of other 90th FS officers. What is the proper wear of the dice on the flight suit? What is the meaning of some of the artifacts in the squadron heritage room? His inquisitive nature reflects an eagerness to get to know the unit that has hosted his forebears for more than 70 years.

"I am very proud of the history between Australia and the 90th," Grady elaborated. "It's very specific. I'm very honored, very keen to continue to learn about the history of the 90th, to live up to the standard of the officers who came before me. There's definitely an expectation to live up to."

***
Cutting the cold Alaska air, Grady's F-22 soars over the frozen Cook Inlet. He peers with 20/20 vision at a once-alien landscape, a place he will call home for three years.

He got into the Raptor's cockpit by way of determination, by way of raising questions in the face of disqualification, by way of striving to be the best pilot he can be.

He pushes the throttle and jets into the dark blue Alaska sky, his eyes sharp and open wide.