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Hello, My Name is Isaac Lopez. I am a student at Los Altos High School C.A., and someday I hope to become a A-10 Pilot.
Can any A-10 pilot tell me about A-10 training and the leght of time it takes you to earn your wings.

Hey there Isaac. Not an A-10 pilot, but a hopeful, like you. From what I've researched and heard...The schedule works out something like this...

SUPT (Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training): Lasts 52 weeks. This covers ground school (~6 weeks, I believe), then advances to the T-37 "Tweet". That phase lasts a while, might be about 26 weeks. At the end of T-37 phase, you can choose to go on to several training tracks. The T-1 "Jayhawk" track trains mostly tanker and transport pilots. A Navy program (can't remember exactly which A/C) trains most C-130 pilots, and the Army in Ft. Rucker trains the helo guys. The T-38 track trains fighter and bomber pilots. So, you'd want the T-38 track. Keep in mind that GOOD PERFORMANCE=OPTIONS (from what I've heard...). So, if you do well in T-37s, you may have first choice of which phase to go on to. Your "specialized" track takes up the rest of SUPT's 52 weeks.

IFF (Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals): I think this lasts approximately six weeks and is taught with the AT-38. All fighter guys (including the A-10s, I believe) go through this course.

Aircraft Training (Unsure of exact name): I've heard this lasts about six months and covers the weapons system (hopefully the Hog) that you will be using.

So, all in all, it is roughly a year and a half to two years before you end up at a unit, flying the mighty Hog. This is, again, my knowledge, and there may well be other information out there that I have not found. Thought you might be interested in what I learned though.

Good luck!

"The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war."

DELTA SNAKE,YOU SENT ME A EMAIL AND YOU NEED TO ASK ONE OF THE DRIVERS THAT QUESTION. OH BY THE WAY,YOU SURE YOUR EMAIL IS RIGHT? I THOUGHT YAHOO.CO.UK WAS ONLY IN THE UK?JUST CHECKING,IF YOUR FROM CALIF.HOW THEY GAVE YOU A OVERSEA'S EMAIL

PRESS TO TEST

_________________
\"Live Free Or Die\"

Hog Fan is mostly right as far as the timeline goes. SUPT actually lasts closer to 54 weeks. Being at the top of your class in T-37s will allow you to choose which track you take (T-38/T-1/T-44/UH-1). Usually, there are 6-8 T-38 slots per class. You've also got to do well in T-38s to be allowed your first choice of aircraft. Future A-10 pilots go through IFF just like every other fighter pilot, but with a slightly different syllabus with a bit more emphasis on ground attack. IFF can take from 6 weeks to 2 months. After that, it's FTU/RTU. For A-10s, that's 4-5 months. For other fighters, it usually runs about 9 months. IFF is now accomplished in the T-38C (glass cockpit) at Moody AFB in Georgia.

It's roughly a year and a half of actually being in formal training courses, but that doesn't count all the downtime between courses. There can be up to a month or two between SUPT and IFF and the same between IFF and RTU/FTU. That can stretch your training pipeline out to two years or more.

Hope that helps,
Your friendly neighborhood Hog Pilot

DELTA SNAKE:
A few things...there is a lot of info like this from other pilots in the Hog Chat forum. This thread might have been better suited for the Hog Chat forum as well, just figured I'd note that for future reference. Also, did you have an relatives that flew A-10s??

Goose: I believe anyone can get a yahoo.co.uk address...although yahoo.com would be much easier. Keep in mind, I have (but never use) a yahoo.com address, and I should have a yahoo.de address.

All Hog Drivers:
I think it may be useful to have one, or a few, of you write up a "So you wanna be a Hog Driver" tutorial for this site. It seems this question comes up more frequently than it did when I started out here, and it may be easier to point new users to a tutorial than devote threads to each request.

--Raven

"Work Hard, Party Hard, Hardly Sleep"

Edited by - thelastraven on Nov 09 2002 07:18 AM

Tiny Giant, thanks for the additional info!

LastRaven, I think that'd be a great idea. The more information the better...most times, anyway. <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

"The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war."

HogFan: I am have a good one occassionally, and they don't normally hurt much, LOL

--Raven

"Work Hard, Party Hard, Hardly Sleep"