USAF Pilot Training - Primary Flying (Phase II) JSUPT

AIM/FAR 2008

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Phase 2 - Primary Flight Training (USAF UPT)

Your Primary phase of pilot training is divided into 4 stages. You will fly the T-37 or T-6 in the following stages:

1. Contact Stage
Here you will learn the fundamentals of flight under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). You will practice take offs, landings, and touch-and-goes. You will build your confidence as you perfect these maneuvers. Landings are done in the military overhead traffic pattern - distinctly different than civilian traffic patterns. Also, you will be practicing simulated emergency procedures including no flap landings, engine-out, and forced landing procedures. You will start all your contact work with an Anti-G Straining Maneuver (AGSM) that tests your G-tolerance that day, and gets you warmed up. In the working areas, you will perform stalls, spins, and recoveries from both.

Initially, you will be working on your habit patterns, building a good "flow" for your ground operations (groundops) and establishing a good instrument cross-check. In the landing pattern, you will be working on pacing, radio calls, clearing outside of the aircraft, and of course landing the plane. To help you memorize and execute these procedures, you will find yourself chairflying these maneuvers at home and also spending a lot of time in the cockpit flight trainers at the squadron. These trainers are mock cockpits complete with all instruments and dials and gages and even the flight stick. Lots of repetition and visualization help you commit the normal and emergency procedures to memory.

After proving proficient at these maneuvers, you will practice aerobatics - to include the loop, immelman, split-s, cuban-eight, clover leaf, barrel roll, and aileron roll. Your confidence will soar as you take the plane solo - first in the traffic pattern only, then out to the working areas to perform aerobatics. Nothing beats walking out to the plane alone and flying it without the instructor!

T-37 Tweet Cockpit - photo thanks to Brandon R.

2. Instrument Stage
Next, you will learn the basics of instrument flight. Academically, you will take the basic and advanced instrument classes, then you will apply this knowledge in the flight simulator and aircraft. You will study USAF instrument flight procedures and regulations. Your work begins with establishing a good instrument scan. You will progress to flying instrument approaches both locally at your home field and on the road at unfamiliar airfields. Near the end of the instrument stage, you and an instructor will take the plane cross-country and practice instrument approaches at unfamiliar fields at a variety of out-of-area destinations. While flying in this stage, you will be busy studying and memorizing instrument procedures, flight rules and regulations, and of course chairflying instrument flight.

3. Formation Stage
T-37 Tweet in USAF Pilot Training You will fly 2-ship formation with your classmates. You will taxi, line up, and do a wing take off in formation. Once in the working areas, you will perform your maneuvers in formation. The 'fingertip' formation is just a few feet away from your wingman. Teamwork, communication, and of course smooth flying is required for successful formation flights. You will get to practice flying as the lead aircraft as well as a wingman. Your confidence and skills culminate in your formation solo flight - where you are a wingman solo in your aircraft and are flying in formation with another aircraft. This is one of the most rewarding flights in the program.

4. Low-Level Stage
The final stage of training involves low-level navigation flying. You will plan and fly various low-level VFR routes. You will get a winds forecast, analyze it and calculate how it will affect each leg of your low-level route. Chart reading, navigation, and time control are concepts being trained in this stage. Your goal is to identify and "hit" each turn point and the final point on time and on target.

Checkrides are flight evaluations - think of them as mid-term exams. They count for a huge portion of your grades. Each checkride involves an evaluation of your flight maneuvers as well as detailed one-on-one questions and answers session with your evaluator. Generally, a stressful event, checkrides are flown at the end of each of the above stages. At this point, after the challenging daily sorties and demanding checkrides, you will progress to your Track Select.

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