combat aircraft

instructor sta. So they have to sit and

wait, which we also don’t want because

at their experience level all of the things

we’re teaching them are decaying skills. It’s

counterproductive.’

‘It’s not just a US-centric issue, either,’

he continues. ‘Some of the Polish pilots

that we have right now are experiencing

the same thing. They  nished here a little

over a year ago and went back to Poland,

but there was no money to send them to

Tucson for the F-16 B-Course. As a result,

they stayed in Poland and didn’t  y or

speak any English [aviation language]

for a year. When Poland was  nally

able to send them back to the US, the

suggestion was made that they should

either come back to IFF to ‘warm them

up’ or even send them back through

Undergraduate Pilot Training — in the

event they came here.’

Deeper problems?

While the training system features a few

bottlenecks, Lt Col Macasek says he also

sees other underlying problems for the Air

Force. ‘I believe there are deeper societal

and generational issues that are a ecting

the number of kids wanting to be  ghter

pilots. Being a  ghter pilot is one of the

most awesome things anyone can do for

a living, but it’s also very challenging. It’s

never the same day twice and it’s di cult

to achieve. Unfortunately, I think some

young people nowadays shy away from

something if it is too di cult. We have

to  nd a way to inspire and motivate the

younger generation and we even hope

that features in Combat Aircraft help

towards that. You can’t just take a young

person  ying with you, so we have to

be creative, to ‘advertise’, in order to give

people the perspective.

‘There’s a lot to be said about the

generation they are growing up in,’

Macasek adds. ‘For example, many

current  ghter pilots had grandfathers

who fought in WW2 — that was very

motivating when we were growing up. I

went  shing with my grandfather all the

time as a kid and heard stories about the

hardships — he was never in the military

but he worked in a steel mill and helped

build a lot of tank parts for the war e ort.

It was just something that I wanted to

do — I wanted to serve and I don’t think

we have that same mentality anymore

Above top to

bottom: Squadron

camaraderie is

one of the things

that the USAF

prides itself upon.

Instructors

outbrief for the

morning ‘go’

at the ‘Black

Knights’.

http://www.combataircraft.net // July 2018 33

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