Home

Welcome to my UPT Journal! It certainly has been a long time
coming but we finally made it! We're here in good ol' Columbus,
MS where class MY07-03 (and 04) will quickly prove to be the
best UPT class the Air Force has ever seen...This website was
created to allow all of you to keep track of my progress through
Air Force pilot training, so I'll try and update it as often as
possible with journal entries and various pictures from various
portions of our training.

For those of you who may not know, UPT stands for
Undergraduate Pilot Training and once you arrive on active
duty, is the first step in becoming a pilot in the United States Air
Force. My name's Joel Leveille and I graduated from Embry
Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL with a B.S.
in Applied Research Meteorology, which is essentially a degree
in Atmospheric Physics. I commissioned as an officer in May of
2005 from ROTC Det 157 and went directly to the Air and
Space Basic Course (ASBC) at Maxwell, AFB in Montgomery,
AL. Upon completion of my first PME experience, I went to
Moody where I lived with 2 great friends I've known since my
freshman year in college and incredibly, we were all in the
same UPT class together. We have since moved on to
Columbus AFB and am now in Phase III of UPT. Here is a short
description of what we're going through...

UPT is essentially a year long process comprised of 3 distinct
phases.
Phase I: Academics
Students will complete approx 4 weeks of academic training
consisting of land survival, systems, basic aerodynamics,
weather, simulators and emergency scenario training.
Simulators will include computer aided instruction (CAI), cockpit
procedural simulators and visual simulators designed to
introduce the student to contact flying.

Phase II: Primary
Students will fly the T-6A Texan II and become proficient in 4
different areas of flying, contact (pattern, basic aerobatics),
instrument flight, formation flight and navigation. Upon
completion of the 6 month training program, students will "track
select" into one of several aircraft. Track select is considered to
be one of the most exciting days in a students career because
it determines what type of aircraft they will likely be flying for the
remainder of their career. The T-1 will be for the "heavy" track,
T-38 for fighter/bomber, the T-44 for C-130's or the UH-1 Huey
for Helo's.

Phase III: Follow On
Students will begin to specialize in the type of flying they will
likely see in their permanent assignment. Future heavy pilots
will train heavily in navigation, cross-country flying as well as
airdrop and air refueling. Future fighter pilots will continue to do
instrument training and formation with a possible follow on
assignment to Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF)
depending on their assigned aircraft. Upon completion of the 6
month Phase III students will earn their wings as Air Force pilots
and continue to their RTU for specific training in the aircraft
they will be flying.

Read more about pilot training at Baseops!!