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Iraqi AF Flying Training Wing achieves 5K-hour milestone

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jessica Lockoski
  • 506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, Iraq -- --  Reaching the 5,000-hour flying training-mark is a milestone that indicates the Iraqi Airmen being trained by the U.S. Air Force's 52nd Expeditionary Flying Training Squadron here are closer to their country's goal of fielding a viable, independent air force.

Flying a battleship gray Cessna 172 with "Iraqi Air Force" painted on its fuselage and an Iraqi flag tail flash, student pilot Lt. Hassan flew the training sortie that crested the 5K-hour milestone midday Jan. 14.

It's a wonderful feeling, said the young lieutenant, after debarking the small aircraft with his Iraqi instructor pilot, Lt. Col. Abdul Basit Abbas.

Both practiced basic pattern training that added airtime to the sortie's historical achievement.

"The 5,000-hour mark ... highlights the maturation of the flying training wing, and the evolution of pilot training capability here in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Nathan Brauner, 52nd EFTS commander. "As operations expand, and the number of students being trained increases, the Iraqi Air Force moves closer to developing the foundational capabilities that will allow it to sustain independent operations and grow to meet future demands."

"It has taken these young Iraqi pilots only 41 days to tally the last 1,000 hours," the colonel said. "This is a fraction of the time compared to the 177 days from the initial 1,000 hour sortie mark recorded after the training wing's launch in late 2007.

Only three months into his flight training, the lieutenant is amazed by the amount of new information he learns on every flight and how his skills help build his country's sovereignty.

"I am proud to be a lieutenant in the Iraqi Air Force, and I hope to be a good pilot to serve for my country," Hassan said .

Within minutes after Lieutenant Hassan landed, two other training aircraft touched-down and were marshaled to parking areas by Iraqi crew chiefs and maintainers.

This scene may exemplify to the rapid growth of flying hours and missions that operate daily from the 52nd EFTS. This organization is just one of the training wings within the Coalition Air Force Transition Team charged with training and educating Iraqi Airmen so there may be credible air force presence in Iraq.

"We are rapidly expanding the flying training wing to its planned capacity of 130 students," said Brauner. "For that, we'll need to train approximately 40 Iraqi instructor pilots. We have more than doubled the size of the wing in the last six months, including graduating our first class, and we've started to train our first new instructor pilots. It's only going to continue accelerating from here and we expect to be at or near capacity for students by this summer."

Currently, there are five Iraqi instructor pilots at the training wing, another six students currently training to instruct classes and 51 undergraduate student pilots.

As for what to expect from these student pilots arriving, training and graduating from the year-long course at the wing here, they begin to mold a new generation of airpower for Iraq.

"These young pilots will be the colonels and generals running the Iraqi Air Force, Brauner said. "The demographics will change dramatically in the next decade as these new pilots come of age."