Having been introduced for the first time during this academic year, the first batch of pilots to be trained in the new Pilatus PC-21 aircraft have now completed their course at the General Air Academy in San Javier.
Some 52 student pilots completed their basic aeronautical training course, of the 75th promotion of the general corps, officer scale, flight specialty and a Navy lieutenant.
This milestone of special relevance has been achieved after the previous basic course which ended on 31 July 2022 was conducted in the CASA C101 aircraft, now retired and replaced by the Pilatus PC-21 as a training aircraft. Since starting this inaugural course on September 20 last year, almost 5,000 teaching hours, some 3,500 flight missions and 2,550 simulator hours have been completed.
To commemorate this milestone of great importance in the history of the General Air Academy, and the Air and Space Force, an act of awarding diplomas to the students who had passed the course was held in the Air Force building.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that although the students have done a good job in taking to the sky in these new aircraft, the instructors first had to adapt their skills, something which they did in record time in order to share their newly acquired Pilatus PC-21 specific skills to the students. The same notion of course is extended to the maintenance and ground crews.
