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A 2011 update from AIS. Everything from the last post is still good with a few additions. The class is still at the FAA MMAC complex (gated area) at an Air Force detachment-type building. Rental car is mandatory - not optional or recommended - because there is no way on the base with any kind of shuttle or anything from the hotels. Hotels - about half of the guys stayed on Meridian Avenue. The Fairfield and Embassy were very nice. Courtyard was a bit older. The good thing about Meridian is that it takes 17 minutes from my hotel door closing until I was in my seat at AIS. That allowed me to go home for lunch almost every day. The other half of the guys stayed downtown at the Hampton or Sheraton, I think. The problem was that it added about 10 minutes on each end of the trip, which made it nearly impossible to do lunch at the hotel. The plus side is that they were right there near the bars in downtown Bricktown (there were also a few pubs on Meridian by the cluster of hotels). Either part of town was good to stay in - just personal preference with regards to being near downtown or near work/airport. The class - it hasn't changed much from the previous posts. There were modules on all the basic topics - circling, departures, RNAV, weather, TERPS, Spacial D, Oceanic, Approaches, Airspace, Jepps, etc. Pretty good stuff. We also flew the FAA spacial D trainer, which was pretty neat. Instead of flying the Airbus sim as in the past, they now have a large MS Flight Simulator mockup that runs like some sort of learjet. You had two, one-hour sims where you flew some of the crazy approaches and a Jepp that was flown by the mishap crew of one of the case studies. On the final day of class, each group of 5 students gave a 20-30 minute presentation on a topic of their choice; our groups presented on CRM, airborne weather, and self-contained approaches (can't remember what the other two groups did). Free time - there was definitely plenty of it. On Tuesday/Thursday of the second week, the one hour sim was the only thing on the schedule, so you had almost two full week days off in addition to the weekend off. On the last day, we were done by 1130 or so (they say not to book until 6PM, which I did, then I could not catch an earlier flight because they all sold out the night prior. If I could do it again, I would have booked a 3PM flight out and then caught the later one in the rare event that we got stuck there that long). A bunch of the guys in my class decided to use their free time studying for some of the FAA written tests since the knowledge was sort of fresh. Someone found out that the Tinker Education office offers the FAA written tests for free, instead of paying $150 each through Lasergrade, or whatever. A bunch of guys took the MCI (military competence instructor) to convert their IP status to civilian CFI (Sheppard Air's website has the details - have to see the FSDO with your test score and a Form 8 saying you are an IP). Other guys studied for their ATP written over the weekend and took that after their sim. To each his own. A few more things on free time - the OK City Bombing memorial is a must see. Powerful, very powerful. Also, the Infantry Museum was a lot better than I thought. I wound up spending the better part of a Saturday there. They must have had 2000 different guns in there from every era of American military history as well as dozens of static tanks, artillery, helicopters, etc. Finally, I spent an hour visiting the state capitol. It is apparently one of the nicest capitols to visit. It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be - plus the free guided tour was very cool. Overall, the class was good. Low-stress, and I learned a bunch and networked with some pretty good dudes. The one thing I would change academically was perhaps not spend 3 full briefings on RNP/RNAV. It was good to see, but half of us don't do RNAV approaches and most of the material in those briefings didn't apply to us.

My info is two years old but I left UPT as the fixed wing qual flight commander in the T-1 squadron. One of the students there had 6,000 hours of fixed wing time and actually got hired by Northwest while in T-1 training - yet the AF made him go through the FWQ program. At the time, the T-6 program was fairly fast paced - done in three, maybe four months. T-1s were a little less forgiving - you had to do all the academics which made you first couple months slower due to scheduling restrictions and contracts with the civilian instructors. Once through that you would be pushed as fast as you could handle it and you were able to proficiency advance as able. Some guys were spending 4 months in the T-1 program if they went fairly fast. There were hints AETC was going to create a completely separate T-1 FWQ syllabus but that hadn't happened when I left in Nov 08. I had really, really good students. They realized that a lot of UPT was a game. They also recognized there were important parts as well where they needed to be on their game. Many issues came from adapting from Army/FAA rules to USAF rules. Once guys quit fighting the fact that the rules were different they did very well. Approach it like a professional aviator and it will be a good time. Approach it like you're entitled to a set of AF wings and you're only checking the box - and you will not have a good time... BF

Whichever program you attend, IMO, the best approach is to acknowledge your aviation experience, however do not give the IPs/flight commander a reason to believe you think you don't need to be in UPT. In my own UPT experience, students with extensive flying experience/ratings who think they (or do) know more than the IPs are targeted for extra scrutiny/harassment, and in some cases wash out. It's usually never skill and almost always attitude. Just get along with everyone in your class, mentor them, and always appear to have a willingness to learn from your IPs (especially FAIPs), even if you know your IP is full of s&it. The Air Force does things differently than the Army and you'll pick up some good nuggets/techniques through your program. Good luck!