Flight Training, Army Style – How the US Army Molds Soldiers into Pilots

By Learning Center contributor Eric Wilkins

“Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.”
– Japanese Proverb

In the aviation world we live in today, pilots embarking on a career as professional pilots must build thousands of hours to secure their dream jobs. One of the most common pathways to build the necessary flight experience involves spending hundreds of hours as a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) – one of the only professional flying jobs available to pilots with limited experience. But not every CFI job is the same, and the life of a US Army instructor is particularly unique.

In the civilian world, new pilots often earn their CFI certification immediately after achieving their Commercial Certificate, with only 250-300 hours of experience under their belt. Some branches of the military follow suit, sending recent flight school graduates to serve as instructors immediately. These pilots are familiar with the operation of the flight training environment, as recent graduates themselves, an asset that is deemed to mitigate the relative lack of “real-world” flight experiences.

In the United States Army, however, instructors tend to follow a different track. Army instructor pilots (IPs) are required to have a minimum of 50 hours of pilot-in-command (PIC) time in their aircraft to attend instructor training. This view promotes the belief that experience is the best instructor, allowing for the sharing of real-world expertise.

In my case, becoming an instructor was a much longer road. My opportunity to instruct came after I had gained approximately 700 hours of flight time as pilot in command in my aircraft type, the Cessna UC-35, which is the military version of the Citation Ultra business jet. By the time I was selected to become an instructor, I had built experience operating the aircraft throughout the world, from the Middle East to Latin America and the entirety of the United States.

Having flown the airplane in various conditions, including dust, snow, and thunderstorms, and into a wide range of airports, from remote airstrips without control towers to large airports like Denver, San Francisco, and LA, I was quite confident in the Citation’s capabilities. My real-world experience was high, but having skipped the CFI path in my civilian journey, I was naïve to the mindset change inherent in the move from captain to teacher.

Instructor training in the military puts very little emphasis on a pilot’s ability to fly the
aircraft. By the time one is selected for instructor training, it’s taken for granted that one knows how to fly. In the Army, an instructor’s role is two-fold: instructor pilots serve both as trainers for new and returning pilots as well as examiners for the plethora of evaluations required of each aviator in a calendar year.

In these dual roles, an instructor must be comfortable changing roles, sometimes in the same flight. Beyond adjusting between teacher and examiner, the instructor must also calibrate their style to meet the student’s needs. Personality differences, as well as varying levels of experience, require different teaching styles. An instructor must know their audience as well as they know their subject to create lessons that will stick with their students.

A traditional Reserve unit is a good example of the varying levels of experience, and in this aspect, it often resembles a typical corporate flight department. Experiences can be wildly different even between pilots of similar ages, as some come from active duty with limited civilian experience, and others may have thousands of hours of experience flying nearly identical missions on the civilian side.

Some members may be set in their ways and resistant to change, while others may have limited experience and seek to absorb as much information as possible. A good instructor needs to possess the skills and knowledge to earn the respect of their students, but without understanding the students’ needs, strengths, and weaknesses, the instructor will not be able to effectively develop their new aviators.

Understanding how a student learns is paramount to ensuring that lessons are absorbed by the student and stay with them after they have left the safety net of instructors, check airmen, and the schoolhouse. Critically, allowing a student to make mistakes within the constraints of safety will drive home lessons much deeper than halting the student before they make the mistake.

Every pilot has memories of the good and bad instructors in their career. Personally, I will never forget the lessons taught by instructors who took the time to mentor me and tailor their teaching to match my learning style.

Understanding that individuals learn differently and experimenting to find the style of instruction that draws the most from an individual is one of the greatest challenges in aviation. But making that difference in teaching good habits, situational awareness, and understanding can be more valuable than a thousand days of diligent study.