Pilots course is one step in a long journey

By PTE John Wellfare

2FTS programming officer Glenn Hindmarsh.

WINGS parades at No. 2 Flying Training School can be deceptive.

There are about 60 officer cadets and pilot officers formed up on the parade ground, but most of them are either part way through the intense 38-week pilot training course or recent graduates awaiting transfer to their first unit.

Despite the deception, the small group of pilots about to receive their wings are easy to spot – they can’t stop smiling.

Those new pilots have reached the end of a long and harrowing journey. Many of their friends didn’t make it through and they even doubted themselves often.

But they’ve made it; they’re about to become fully qualified Air Force pilots.

Glenn Hindmarsh, 2FTS programming officer, says the students have already overcome several hurdles by the time they reach the school. The first step for a civilian wanting to become an Air Force pilot is to undergo flight screening at the Pilot Selection Agency, located at the ADF Basic Flying Training School (BFTS) in Tamworth.

Successful candidates go on to the Officer Training School at RAAF Base Williams, Point Cook for the 17-week course that will qualify them to become Air Force officers.

The pilot entrants who complete officer training then return to BFTS for basic flying training on the CT-4B basic trainer, and only those who pass this trial make it to 2FTS for in-depth pilot training – a course which, in many cases, only two-thirds of candidates will complete.

“The guys here do have a lot of hoops to jump through,” Mr Hindmarsh says. “For example, during the navigation phase the guys are up very early in the morning after a late night of studying the night before, preparing maps for that day.”

The course is planned to run 38 weeks, but weather and other factors mean most courses run over. The most recent course graduated after 44 weeks.

According to flying instructor Squadron Leader Jeremy Summers, the students are constantly learning new skills during their flying training, without much chance to consolidate their knowledge. It’s deliberately designed to make sure only the best get through.

“There’s an awful lot crammed into a short space of time,” he says. “For the students, they probably won’t feel too much like anything’s linking together throughout the course; every time they get to
consolidate their skills there’s something new thrown at them.

“Where you’ll find it all clicks together is with the guys who have graduated, when they get an opportunity to no longer be taught new stuff and can consolidate the stuff that they’ve learned. Their skills dramatically improve because they’re not being asked to shove new things into the computer every day.

“We have at least two types on course so [the students] make a transition, because when they get to the end of pilot training it’s not the end, they have to transition onto another type again.

2FTS CO Wing Commander Gareth Neilsen said the graduates had every right to feel proud of their achievements. “The course is rigorous and the standards are high, but so too are the demands of today’s military flying.”

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