Tag Archives: pilot training

Missing F-16 Pilot Presumed Dead

Capt. Nicholas Giglio, an F-16 pilot from Shaw Air Force Base, is presumed dead after his aircraft collided with another F-16 off the South Carolina Coast.  Based on testimony from the other pilot, Capt. Lee Bryant, who was able to land at Charleston AFB, and the fact that the automated beacon initiated by ejection never came on, the Air Force has concluded that Capt. Giglio did not survive the initial impact.

The Air Force has transitioned from rescue to recovery.

According to the Wing Commander, the 32-year-old Capt Giglio Read more

F-16s Collide, Pilot Missing

Updated: Information and photos of the pilots are available from a local news source.

The Air Force announced that two F-16CJs from Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, had collided over the Atlantic Coast during night training on Thursday.

One, piloted by Capt. Lee Bryant, managed to land at Charleston AFB.  The other, piloted by Captain Nicholas Giglio, is unaccounted for, and Giglio is reported missing.

Coast Guard vessels conducting rescue operations found debris believed to be from the second aircraft.  Regrettably, the absence of an emergency beacon–which normally transmits automatically after an ejection–increases the likelihood that Giglio went down with his aircraft.

UAV Operators Get Wings, Flight Pay

A previous post noted that the Air Force graduated UAV pilots who had no prior flight experience.  More recently, the Air Force announced [updated link] that those pilots will wear the following wings, designed by public affairs Staff Sergeant Austin May in the UK:

(By comparison, you can see traditional Air Force pilot wings in the ChristianFighterPilot logo.)  The wings were awarded to the first class that just graduated.  This is not an insignificant step for the Air Force, which is characterized by a culture that closely guards those who it permits to wear wings.  The Air Force also announced that the UAS pilots Read more

Possible Changes in Air Force Pilot Training

Gen. Stephen Lorenz, commander of Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which is the major command under which pilot training falls, recently indicated the potential for changes in Air Force pilot training.

His proposals included delaying the “specialization” of pilot training students until they were closer to, or already had earned, their wings.  Currently, pilot training students “track” into specifically-geared training programs six months into their 12-month program.  Read more

Air Force Graduates First non-Pilot Pilots

The Air Force has graduated its first class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilots that included officers who had never attended Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT).  That is, they are the first UAV pilots who were not formerly a pilot of some other military aircraft.  The class was composed of 10 pilots and 9 sensor operators.  Eight of the pilots were non-aviators; there is a second similar class in training behind them.

The increasing demand for UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan–as well as the desire to keep military pilots in cockpits–led to the “experiment”  Read more

Navy ROTC Adds Year to Commitment

The Navy has added a year of active duty service to the previous 4-year requirement for those who use NROTC scholarships.  This makes the service commitment from ROTC equal to that of those who attend the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.  The new commitment applies to those who begin their freshman year under the NROTC scholarship in the fall of 2010.

Interestingly, those who attend college on an NROTC scholarship but are commissioned in the Marines will still have a 4-year commitment, as will Read more

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