419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron
The NATO Flying Training in Canada programme was launched in 2000 and 419 Ta ctical Fighter Training Squadron became responsible for Phase IV training – the last step before the cockpit of a frontline f ighter. Dirk Jan de Ridder investigates.
The sun rises over Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake, Alberta, as a group of young Canadian, Hungarian and Singaporean pilots walk out to their CT-155 Hawk jets. With several years of pilot training behind them and already cleared solo on the Hawk, this is a new chapter in their careers. Here at Cold Lake they will be taught to wear the aircraft like a suit, manoeuvre it to the limit in combat and kill bandits while staying alive themselves. After years spent in a relatively benign training environment, this is the first time they are part of a squadron. The pressure is on to demonstrate they are not just pilots, but fighter pilots.
Lt Caleb Robert of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is one of those students in Phase IV of NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC), the final phase before hopefully converting to the Hornet. He told AFM: “Once you come here it’s single-minded focus. This is the figh…
