Combat aircraft

These

1965-vintage

T-38Cs have

received a

number of

structural

modifications

over the years

under the Pacer

Classic program.

New wings are

now planned.

To underline this important point, a

Norwegian student pilot told Combat

Aircraft, ‘Since you’re thrown into a

class of different nationalities, you get

to experience some of their traditions

and quirks, and how they work. The

Italians used to host pasta dinners,

the Americans [are], of course, big

on barbeque. So we each have our

traditions that we bring to the social

circle. It’s a great community and you

get to experience a lot of different

traditions.’

In a bid to help cement the concept

of a local welcome, each nation

involved in ENJJPT has its own sponsor

within the local community creating

social arrangements — events for the

students, the instructors and, equally

importantly, their families, who can stay

here for up to four years.

‘The local community has been so

welcoming and so wonderful, with our

international students in particular,’ says

Themely. ‘A lot of these students have

never lived outside Europe or Canada.

They come here and they are assigned a

sponsor family who welcomes them into

their home and gives them all kinds of

activities to make them feel at home in

the Texoma^ [adjoining areas of Texas and

Oklahoma] region. This community has

done nothing but bend over backwards

to help accommodate and bring these

people in and make them feel like they

are welcome in this community, so we

are very grateful for their support.’

Roeine endorses this view. ‘I have not

seen anything like it, anywhere at all. It’s

a great program, the initiative from the

local community connected to ENJJPT.

It makes a whole lot of difference

for all the

nations here, in particular for

the instructors that are going to stay

here with their families for three to four

years. It’s really nice to have that social

opening to the community through

your sponsors.’

The training programs

Of course, the main emphasis here is on

training combat pilots. ENJJPT offers four

distinct training programs. In addition

to undergraduate pilot training (UPT),

it provides in-house instructor training

(teaching pilots how to be instructors),

introduction to fighter fundamentals (IFF)

and IFF upgrade instructor pilot training

— a syllabus for upgrading instructor

pilots to IFF instructors. About 200 student

pilots earn their wings at ENJJPT annually.

Around 80 new instructors are trained per

FEATURE ARTICLE // EURO-NATO JOINT JET PILOT TRAINING

36 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

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