Stephen Starts Pilot Training

Well, Stephen started pilot training about 2 months ago. I was really hoping that he would be willing to write a few paragraphs about pilot training, but I can tell you that blogging is very low on his priority list!

Stephen's pubs

After being washed back a few classes, Stephen finally started academics mid-February. Academics are about 6 weeks long. They have to study all about the systems in the aircraft, about how flying impacts the physiological aspects of the body, survival, and other stuff. Many people call it "slack-ademics" because there isn't a ton that has to be learned immediately, so the tests are also easier. They haven't gotten the full fire-hose of UPT quite yet.



The good thing about this was I was starting my EMT class that exact week, so we were both hitting the books. Even though this was the "easy" part of pilot training and he didn't have as much to learn/prep every night as he does now, he still spent hours studying extra material to get ahead. Whenever I would finish my chapter for the night, that's when he would stop his extra studying. It worked out really well!

By the time they hit the flight line on March 31st, he was already way ahead in his studying and was able to start concentrating more on preparing for his flights and chair-flying. He has been doing an amazing job! He has gotten multiple comments from his instructors about how well he flies and his natural abilities. The only bad thing for him with flying is he's having some airsickness problems, but he's working them out and learning how to deal with it!

Stephen's ultimate goal for pilot training is to be able to fly the B-1. That's what he's wanted to fly since he was about 10 years old. Though, the more we learn about other aircrafts, they cooler they sound. I feel like we knew a decent amount about fighters and bombers before starting pilot training. But, having talked to more people who fly "heavies", we aren't exactly sure now what we want to fly in the end. One of the "heavies" Stephen is thinking about flying is the C-130. It was originally designed as a transport aircraft, but also is used in search and rescue, airborne assault, reconnaissance, refueling, and firefighting. That's a pretty cool mission!

In about 4-5 months they will be done flying their current aircraft, the T-6. They have what's called Track, where between 3-6 of them will get to fly T-38s and the rest fly T-1s. The T-38 prepares them to fly fighters and bombers. It's highly competitive, but once in the T-38 program, it should be relatively easy to get to fly bombers once finished! The T-1 will lead to the heavy airframes. Obviously we'll have to wait and see how Stephen continues to do in pilot training and what he tracks, and then we'll decide more about what airplane to fly!