“It Lit the Spark”: Raptor Pilot Comes Full Circle at St. Cloud Air Show

(KNSI) – The pilot who will headline the North Star Air Show at St. Cloud Sky Central Airport this weekend first fell in love with flying after standing on the other side of the fence at the same airport.

Air Force Captain Nick “Laz” Le Tourneau, commander and pilot of the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team, grew up in New York Mills, Minnesota. He was a teenager when he made the trip down to the St. Cloud airport. “I actually saw the F-22 Raptor demonstration here in St. Cloud back when I was 16 years old. And I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do until I saw that. And that immediately lit the spark for aviation. It was the thing I chased after for basically the rest of my life. And it’s really special to be back here in the same place that I got my spark lit.”

Jake Judd/KNSI News

Le Tourneau earned his private pilot’s license at a small flight school in Perham. From there, he went to the Air Force Academy, then to pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, flying the T-6 and the T-38. He is stationed in Virginia, where he deployed twice in the F-22 before earning his instructor pilot qualification, which he says is the key credential for landing the demonstration job. He puts the timeline at 16 years from his first license to the cockpit he sits in now.

Le Tourneau was asked what he enjoys most about being in the cockpit. “It’s the ultimate sense of freedom, really. It’s like flying a roller coaster where you create the tracks. You’re the only person in the cockpit. There are no two-seat F-22s in existence, so it’s one of the most cool and freeing experiences in the world.”

The demonstration itself is built around what the Air Force calls supermaneuverability, or the aircraft’s ability to keep maneuvering past the point where most planes would stall. Le Tourneau says the Raptor has enough thrust coming out of the back that it essentially becomes a rocket at that point.

He also wants credit going to the crew. Le Tourneau says it takes 200 to 300 people to maintain a squadron of Raptors back home at Langley Air Force Base, but the demonstration team takes two aircraft to more than 25 locations a year with a road crew of just 10.

The air show runs Saturday, August 1st and Sunday, August 2nd. Gates open at 9:00 a.m. both days, with flying from 10:00 a.m. until roughly 5:00 p.m. Also on the schedule are the RE/MAX Skydiving Team, the CAF Rise Above Squadron’s P-51C Mustang, the NextGen Eagles, the B-25 “Miss Mitchell,” aerobatic performers Stephen Covington, Erik Edgren and Anthony Oshinuga, and Precision Exotics running supercars against aircraft down the runway. Static displays include a C-130 Hercules, a UH-60 Black Hawk and a CH-47 Chinook.

Tickets must be purchased online in advance, and parking is included with every ticket. For full information, click here.

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