First Day of School.

The grueling 54 weeks have begun. J left at 6:55 this morning for his first day of Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). It will be a long 54 weeks, full of studying into the wee hours of the morning, lots and lots of time spent in flight simulators, and not a lot of sleep, but on the flip side, it will include hours and hours in the T6 Texan (followed by -hopefully- the T1 or T38), learning to be a real live pilot.

A lot of people have questions about this process, so I'll try to explain what I can. J has six weeks of book work -two feet of book work- to get through before he will actually fly the plane. After that, he spends about 6 months in the T6, learning to fly it. When he is in the plane, he is the one flying. He will have an instructor, but he will be the one flying the plane. Pretty cool, huh?

After the T6, he will "track" his next trainer plane. As of right now, we're hoping for either the T1 or the T38, so we can stay here in Oklahoma. But I'll let you in on that process later.

At the end of UPT, right around week 53, J will find out what plane he will be flying at the beginning of his career, and very possibly, throughout his entire flying career. So, no, we do not know where we will be going after this, nor do we have any idea. And no, we do not know what kind of plane J will be flying after training, nor will we have any idea for 53 weeks.

Hopefully that clears some of this crazy Air Force training up for you! Leave a comment with any other questions you have about this big confusing process!