D-U-N...DONE! (sort of)
RFC finished up this past Friday, and with that, my class and I finished up the new Undergraduate RPA Training (URT) pipeline. It only took about 6.5 months, compared to the traditional pilot training pipeline that takes about 2 years, so I'm not complaining. Here's another article that came out recently describing the whole pipeline, some details about the individual classes, and the new RPA pilot career field from Air Force Magazine: RPA Article. We're not completely done with our overall training, though.
Next up will be the formal training that I've mentioned from time to time, most likely at Holloman for those of us going to the MQ-1 Predator. The two guys in my class that were assigned Global Hawks will be heading off to Beale to be a part of the very first Global Hawk formal training class. I haven't heard a whole lot about the MQ-1 formal training, besides that it's about 3.5 months long. I don't know how much we'll be working with sensor operators, or how many sorties we'll be flying, or what the training environment is like. I also haven't heard anything about when we'll be going, either. The class ahead of us got dates around August, so they had about a 5 month break in between. I wouldn't mind a bit of a break to focus on some other things, like some professional development stuff I need to finish up, and getting settled in some in Las Vegas, but 5 months is quite a bit. So with PCS orders and no further training dates, it looks like I'm going to head off to Vegas to sit around for a while. Sounds like trouble in the making!
For now, though, it's back to the "transition flight" room. Luckily, I'll have plenty to keep me busy with setting up this PCS and everything.
