Think of us as a highly specialized University that trains pilots to become F-16 Fighter pilots. Students are "enrolled" in a compressed Graduate level "degree". Student graduates are the best-qualified F-16 Fighter Pilots in the world. We train pilots with various experience levels. The Basic course, we call it the B course, are for students who have never flown a fighter aircraft, but are graduates of our US Air Force pilot training course. The Transition course (TX) is for experienced fighter pilots (more than 500
hours in a fighter), but not the F-16. These pilots are experienced in the F-15C, F-15E, A-10, F-14, F18 or AV-8 aircraft. We also have courses for pilots upgrading to Instructor Pilot or Night Vision Goggle Instructor Pilot. We train US Air Force, Air National Guard, Navy and Marine pilots. Make no mistake, this is a highly competitive, aggressive and challenging graduate level training program. The highest standards of officership and military bearing are the standard. Each student has at least a Bachelors degree, is an officer, a military pilot and has exhibited exceptional piloting skills to be considered to fly a fighter aircraft. Curriculum is jointly coordinated between active duty Air Force and the Air National Guard F-16 Training Operations. Curriculum is highly responsive to commanders' needs whether in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq or Republic of Korea. We use a building block approach in our "University". Students receive "textbook" study material in electronic format and hard copy and are expected to review before the classroom lecture. Students will read the material
before class; they are expected to understand the material in class well enough to ask questions. Classroom lectures are followed by computer based interactive lessons. They are then required to "free play" interactive
computer training at their own pace - complete with informal quizzes built in. Skills are then practiced in the simulator until proficient. The students are then ready to apply this new information and skill in the jet. This
approach applies to every skill required to survive in aerial combat. As the course progresses, more complex fighter skills are included in each training event. When the course is started, takeoff and landing is a
challenge.By the time they graduate, they are qualified to go to war in the F-16 as a combat wingman. Each time we introduce new skills, an IP will "clear a student solo" for that skill before attempted by a student in his own aircraft. A student is required to be safe, not necessarily proficient to fly in his own aircraft without an IP in the back seat. Every Graduate receives Night Vision training sorties. We concentrate these night missions in order to keep our landing times from not getting too late. Students are graded on every simulator and aircraft sortie. Anywhere from 20 to 30 specific skills are graded for each training event. Students receive 2 in-flight evaluations as part of their training; one evaluation to qualify them as an F-16 pilot and one at the end of the course to qualify them as a combat ready F-16 pilot wingman - think of it as an airborne thesis presentation. They accomplish 138 classroom lectures, 10 written exams, 29 simulators and 60 flights during their training. We have trained over 200 students since we began this mission in 1999. Our instructor pilots have a combined total of over 50,000 hours of fighter time. This is an outstanding level of experience known to very few fighter wings anywhere in the world.
The jet: Approximately $25M each with the latest hardware and software technology integrated. The newest capabilities are Night Vision, JDAM and Situational Awareness Data Link (SADL). The F-16 can conduct it's
mission at any time of day or night with no limitations. JDAM allows us to use GPS accuracy to less than 30 feet. SADL gives us a real time wireless supersonic network between our aircraft. Fuel, missiles remaining,
radar locks and positional information is passed to all aircraft on the net without pilot intervention. The jet can roll all the way around twice in one second (720 deg per second). Zero to 500 in 30 seconds. We can pull 9 Gs - 9 times our weight - similar to 9 people your weight sitting on your lap. Students are required to pass a stringent physical test of aerobic and anaerobic stamina as well as maintain an active fitness program as part
of their training. The F-16 is a corvette with wings. We fly with the highly reliable GE F-100 engine. It is difficult to stay subsonic in our Military Operating Area. We can simulate all hi-tech missile and bomb employment on the F- 16. Our primary bombing range is used for inert and practice munitions. Live bombs are only expended at at certain ranges.
The noise you hear overhead is the 178th Fighter Wing teaching new F-16 pilots how to protect our American
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