Hi! I’m Savannah, an Air Force fighter pilot wife and stay-at-home-mom. After my husband graduated from ROTC, our family moved to Laughlin AFB to start pilot training (UPT). He already had his private pilots license (PPL) so he skipped initial flight training (IFT) and went straight into T-6 academics. After completing T-6’s, he was chosen to fly the T-38 for Phase 3. At the end of UPT, my husband dropped the F-22 Raptor.
To any wives who are new to (congratulations!), or hoping to be (good luck!) part of the T-38 community, hopefully, I can help manage some expectations and give you some information to help you feel confident in what to expect during this season of life.
For me, what set the tone for what T-38s was going to be like, happened on track night. As soon as track night was over, the IPs called over all the new T-38 students and took them straight to their new flight room for their first boldface test!! The students obviously weren’t expected to do well on that test, but in my perspective, it was to show them how serious they were about the intensity of T-38s and that they needed to start learning everything about this new airplane NOW. Their first “official” day in the flight room was the following Monday, and they again had a boldface test (as well as every day after that for several weeks).
Along that vein, I’ll just rip the bandaid off. T-38s is very busy. My husband was double-turning events (flights and/or sims) every day for several months, with occasional triple turns. In T-6s, I felt like each unit got progressively busier, and I felt the same with T-38s, but the business never let up from T-6s into the beginning of T-38s before continuing to ramp up with each unit in the T-38. My husband would often leave to get to his flight room at 5 am (or whatever time formal started), get home at 5 pm, and study/flight plan for 3 or so more hours before going to bed. 15-16 hour days were the norm. It wasn’t uncommon for my husband to be gone before our son woke up in the morning, and only have time to say goodnight, or read a quick book to him before bed, and some days missed seeing our son entirely. He also would go into the flight room for several hours on Saturdays and Sundays to study and flight plan, or do that studying/planning at home in the solitude of his office.
We learned to prioritize weekends and have Saturday morning be “daddy-day” for our son so they could spend some solid quality time together. On Sundays, we always went to church together as a family. “Daddy-day” and Church became very sacred times for our family to reconnect before another busy week. While some weeks were harder than others for our son, he did adjust and looks forward to the weekend and whatever time he can get with his dad, and they have a fantastic relationship with each other. Kids are SO resilient!! Some of the things I did during this busy season to help myself and my son were to find a good playgroup, set up lots of playdates, get outside every day, prioritize exercise, only tidy up the toys once a day shortly before my husband got home, and lots of meal prep so I didn’t feel so overwhelmed making dinner every day.
I will say, that not everyone in my husband’s T-38 class spent as much time outside of the flight room studying as my husband did. But my husband made a very intentional decision to give 110% during UPT because as he often said, “I only get one shot at this.” He wanted to give it everything he had and he gave as much time back to our family as he could on the weekends. You and your spouse will have to decide what is going to work best for you and your family, and what level of commitment they can give to UPT, but I’ll echo my husband, they have one chance, so help them make the very most of it.
I’m one of the spouses who loves to know ALLLL the things about what my husband is doing. If you are too, I hope you’ll appreciate this collection of information. If you aren’t, no worries! Skim over this information or refer back to it if you are curious or have a question pop up later on.
For the spouses like me, who are very involved in the process, if your spouse is in T-6s, some of these topics will be familiar, with some variations for T-38s, and some topics will be completely new or different from what you have experienced up until this point! It is also important to note that there are some changes that are coming to the T-38 program as they start to roll out FBF (fighter bomber fundamentals) in the next few years at the UPT bases. From what we understand right now, FBF basically combines the normal T-38 training with a track into IFF (intro to fighter fundamentals) or a bomber curriculum. We don’t know much about it yet, only that it is coming. However, I’m sure many of these things will stay relevant and accurate even with these updates coming.
The Number of Students is significantly smaller in T-38s. Whereas in T-6’s you have about 30 students across two flight rooms, you go down to about 5-9 in one flight room. My husband went from 30 in his T-6 class to 6 in his T-38 class. However, there may be more than one class of T-38s in a flight room at a time, a more senior class, and a “baby class” if you will. My husband had a senior class when he first started T-38 academics, but they dropped before my husband had his dollar ride, and then they didn’t get a baby class for about 2 months after that.
Formal Release is back! However, for my husband, this didn’t start until after their first test in academics, and then he was on formal until his first check-ride.
Academics for T-38s lasted about 5 weeks, which is notably shorter than Phase 1 in the T-6. They are also in their new flight room for T-38 academics, unlike during Phase 1 where they had not yet been assigned to a T-6 flight room. Academics included classes, a revisit to aerophysiology, simulators, the centrifuge, and yes, memorizing a whole new boldface and ops limits! If you helped your spouse memorize T-6 boldface and ops limits, get ready to learn another one with them!
The Centrifuge is a unique experience to those who will fly the T-38. During academics, your pilot will go to the centrifuge in Dayton, Ohio at Wright-Patterson AFB. My husband was gone for about 4 days for this. The pilots go to Ohio together as a class. They have a class teaching them how to properly strain for G’s, and then they’re put in the centrifuge one by one, while the others get to watch each other on the screens. While in the centrifuge, they are coached through different G scenarios, and have to avoid “graying out”/light loss or G-locking (passing out) for a certain amount of time at 7 G’s in order to pass. You only get a certain number of “tries” before you fail, and have to come back in a few weeks. Everyone in my husband’s class passed, but someone in the class before him failed and had to go back. That to say, it isn’t uncommon to have to go back. My husband recounts his experience at the centrifuge as the most uncomfortable thing he has ever done… He had bruising in many places on his body from burst blood vessels in his skin (this is also common – and some people have it worse than others). The pilots call this bruising the “geasles” (sounds like measles). Pending what they drop, they may have to go back to the centrifuge for a higher G qualification.
Flying time is much shorter than T-6s because the T-38 can only hold so much fuel. Each flight is only about an hour, compared to the 2ish hours in the T-6. Because of this they have to fly a lot more than they did in T-6s to accomplish the same objectives.
Speed. The T-38 is so much faster than the T-6. Your pilot has to learn how to think faster than the jet. The T-38 also has one of the fastest landing speeds of any of the fighter jets! This is something my husband commented on every day for weeks when he started flying, “It’s just so fast.”
The Units for flying line up with T-6 nation. They start with trans, then navigation, formation, and mission. The subtle differences here are that trans and nav often happen simultaneously. Formation starts with “baby form” similar to what is done in T-6s, and then they start flying tactical formation. Finally mission is divided into 2 blocks, and the second block is different pending if you drop bombers or fighters.
Tactical formation is an important skill that T-38 student pilots have to learn and, is very important to what your pilot may drop because fighter pilots go everywhere in tactical formations. You’re always with your wingman. How your pilot performs in tac form can make or break their chances of getting a fighter drop.
Mission block has two units in T-38s, unlike the one in T-6s. These mission units differ pending what you drop, which is why they have to be completed after drop night. Fighters and bombers have different syllabus requirements, with the fighter syllabus being a bit longer, with a few more simulators and flights. If you FAIP (you get the first assignment instructor pilot as your drop), you complete the fighter syllabus for the mission block.
Checkrides are a bit different in T-38s, because there are 3 instead of 2. There is a checkride after Trans and Nav, which is arguably the hardest checkride of any airplane/checkride in UPT. Their next checkride for formation is very important as well, as it is the last checkride that will be factored into their drop. After drop night, they will complete the mission block and have a final checkride to become “UPT complete.”
Drop Night!!! The night you’ve been waiting for since you found out about that pilot slot. A couple of weeks prior to drop night, we had the chance to fill out our “dream sheet.” For T-38 students, you rank every airplane in the Air Force inventory – including the heavies (cargo/tankers/etc.). You do not choose locations, you just rank planes. We all put a lot of thought and consideration into our drop sheets. Sometimes, everyone’s #1 plane is the same, and sometimes, like in our class, everyone had a different #1! Ultimately, your drop comes down to the needs of the Air Force. It is important to remember that flying the T-38 does not guarantee you a fighter or a bomber – you are universally assignable out of the T-38, meaning you can drop ANYTHING, which is why you rank everything.
Drop night is so much fun and so exciting. There is a fair bit of fun hazing that goes on during the weeks leading up to drop night. At Laughlin, they like to say there are either x or y number of engines in your drop to get everyone thinking in overtime about what aircraft might be in the drop. At the end of the day, they told us the wrong number of engines just to mess with us. Enjoy the anticipation!
A final note…
No matter what your spouse test scores are, how they perform on checkrides, and no matter what your drop is, remember how incredible it is that your spouse gets to fly for the world’s greatest Air Force, and think about all the miracles that got you to that day. Our path to the F-22 was paved with miracles, and we thank God everyday for this incredible opportunity we have to serve in this capacity.
Best of luck to you and your spouses!
Meet Savannah
I’m a wife to a USAF Pilot and a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year-old boy. My toddler and I love spending time at our base library, the parks around the base, and watching Daddy fly his airplane from the flight-line cafe. I’m a board member of the Laughlin XL Spouses’ Club, and love volunteering at our base thrift shop. If the military has taught me one thing – it is to find your community. You can find your people to be in your corner wherever you go. Spouses show up for spouses!
