Beginning with the basics -- the future of Undergraduate Pilot Training

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Michaela Prince
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs

VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – Six months ago, a group of Airmen began their journey that would take them from learning the very basics of flight to becoming world-class aviators.

On Aug. 7, this year, those Airmen walked across the stage at Stride Bank Center in Enid, Oklahoma, in front of their friends, families and fellow Airmen. They had become Vance Air Force Base’s first graduates of Future Undergraduate Pilot Training, or FUPT.

Their graduation marked more than the end of months of training. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in the way the Air Force trains its pilots.

Before these students could learn to fly military aircraft, they first had to learn how to fly.

Under FUPT, students begin their pilot-training journey through Initial Pilot Training, or IPT. The program moves the foundational elements of flight training outside of the traditional military pilot-training pipeline and into civilian flight schools.

For students with little or no aviation experience, IPT provides the opportunity to build the foundation they need before beginning military flight training. Students work toward and receive their private pilot certificate, instrument rating and multi-engine rating through an accelerated civilian program.

Students with prior flight experience, who have already earned their ratings, will still go to initial pilot training to hone their skills, build confidence and develop themselves further.

Regardless of where they begin, the goal is to bring them to the same starting point before they enter the next stage of their journey.

Once students complete IPT, they are sent to one of the Air Force’s undergraduate pilot training bases: Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas; Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; or Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.

It is there that their civilian flight training begins to take on a distinct military purpose.

At Vance, students are no longer simply learning how to fly an airplane. They are learning how to become Air Force pilots.

Air Force instructor pilots build on the foundation students developed during IPT by teaching military specific training, including aerobatics, flying in formation, navigation, and flight leadership. Students also learn to make decisions under pressure, develop leadership skills and understand the responsibilities that come with becoming an Air Force aviator.

Their performance throughout training ultimately helps determine the direction of their careers, including what aircraft they will fly, where they will be stationed and what missions they will eventually perform.

For instructors, FUPT shifts the starting point of military flight training by moving foundational flying instruction to IPT.

“Students who start military aviation after completing IPT are generally more prepared to succeed within the first five sorties,” said Lt. Col. Michael Fantauzzi, commander of the 8th Flying Training Squadron, one of two T-6 Training Squadrons on Vance Air Force Base.

The change allows military instructors to spend less time teaching the foundational flight skills that students previously had to learn during UPT and more time developing those students as military aviators.

“The primary differences between FUPT and UPT is the decreased amount of time a student has in military flight training,” Fantauzzi said. 

The current syllabus significantly reduces the number of required training flights by leveraging skills already acquired during IPT. 

The difference is made up through the civilian portion of the pipeline.

“IPT is designed to cover that gap through civilian flight school, allowing more time for instructor pilots to focus on advanced military flying,” Fantauzzi said.

The result is a training pipeline designed to move students through the military portion of their training more efficiently while maintaining the skills needed to become Air Force pilots.

IPT serves as a bridge between civilian and military aviation by establishing a common foundation of flight knowledge and skills before students arrive at UPT. The program gives instructor pilots a consistent starting point from which to build their students into military aviators. Maintaining and building on those skills is one of the challenges instructors and students will continue to face as the Air Force refines the new program.

The new starting point also gives instructors more opportunity to focus on the larger goal of preparing students to operate as Air Force aviators.

The change is expected to increase the number of students each UPT base can move through the pipeline, which could ultimately increase the Air Force’s overall pilot production. The U.S. Air Force plans to use its FUPT initiative to reach its goal of producing 1,500 pilots annually.

The 20 Airmen who graduated Aug. 7 now represent the first completed iteration of that new journey at Vance.

Their experience provides the Air Force with an opportunity to examine how the two-part training model works in practice — from the civilian flight school where students first learn to fly to the military training environment where they learn to apply those skills as Air Force pilots.

The program has not finished evolving.

“While we have successfully executed the first iteration of FUPT, there are ongoing meetings being held across the UPT enterprise, 19th Air Force and Air Education & Training Command continue to improve and tweak this new format,” Fantauzzi said.

As those conversations continue, future classes will follow the same path as Vance’s first FUPT graduates: beginning with the fundamentals, building their skills and eventually stepping into the cockpit as military aviators.

For the first 20, that journey has already reached one milestone.

They arrived as students learning to fly and they left as Air Force pilots.