{"id":508663,"date":"2026-05-26T22:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/the-chilean-air-force-graduated-its-first-f-16-pilot-the-sky-was-never-the-limit\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T22:09:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:09:31","slug":"the-chilean-air-force-graduated-its-first-f-16-pilot-the-sky-was-never-the-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/the-chilean-air-force-graduated-its-first-f-16-pilot-the-sky-was-never-the-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chilean Air Force graduated its first F-16 pilot: “The sky was never the limit”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chile.-<\/strong>A true milestone was achieved by Lieutenant Francisca Caces,<\/strong> 29 years old, who became this Monday the first woman<\/strong> to graduate as a F-16 fighter pilot<\/strong> of the Chilean Air Force (FACh).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>In a ceremony held at the Hangar of the 5th Air Brigade, the Commander of the Aviation Group No. 8, Gast\u00f3n Cerda<\/strong>, congratulated the group of newly graduated officers, who for 15 months<\/strong> fulfilled “a complex process of air instruction that tested their discipline, study capacity and dedication<\/strong>. They were months of intense training, sacrifice and learning”.<\/p>\n\n\nAs explained by Commander Cerda in his speech, learning to pilot these aircraft first requires a rigorous theoretical phase<\/strong> in order to understand how the machine works, and then begin with real instruction flights<\/strong>. Finally, the new pilots trained in air-to-air and air-to-surface combat simulations.\n\n\n

<\/a>“At high speeds, where margins of error are reduced to fractions of a second, these aviators must demonstrate absolute control of the aircraft,”<\/strong> Cerda recalled.<\/p>\n\n\nAs things stand, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force, Air General Hugo Rodr\u00edguez, presented the new pilots with their respective certificates, highlighting among them Lieutenant Francisca Caces, since “in the world there are very few women who have achieved this capacity”, an issue he described as a “double pride” for the institution.\n\nThe brand new officer entered the Aviation School in 2015 and received her first instruction in the Chilean-made training aircraft, T-35 Pill\u00e1n.\n\n\n

The first woman woman to pilot an F-16<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\nAccording to information provided by the FACh, Lieutenant Francisca Caces entered the Aviation School in the year 2015 <\/strong>as a member of the Tauro Squadron, carrying out her air instruction program in the beloved training aircraft manufactured in Chile, T-35 Pill\u00e1n.<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIn 2019, it was assigned to the III\u00aa Air Brigade in Puerto Montt and the following year to the Aviation Group No. 1 of the I\u00aa Air Brigade in Iquique, completing the Tactical Combat Course<\/strong> in the latter. There, she received her red pin that symbolizes the preparation and effort of these pilots.\n\nIn the following years, he was an operational pilot of the A-29 \u201cSuper Tucano\u201d and last year, he completed his training on the F-16 at the Aviation Group No. 8 of the 5th Air Brigade.\n\nIn a brief statement, the brand new first Chilean combat pilot said she hopes to be the first “but not the last.” The sky was never the limit and the Chilean Air Force advances with those who dare more.<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chile.-A true milestone was achieved by Lieutenant Francisca Caces, 29 years old, who became this Monday the first woman to graduate as a F-16 fighter pilot of the Chilean Air Force (FACh). In a ceremony held at the Hangar of the 5th Air Brigade, the Commander of the Aviation Group No. 8, Gast\u00f3n Cerda, congratulated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-28kf","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yerandi Santana","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-13-at-5.35.07-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}