It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… lone Army aviation student in the cockpit?
For the first time in decades, student pilots are flying solo across the country, the Army announced Thursday, as part of a curriculum change the schoolhouse hopes will create more skilled pilots.
The new aviators will prepare for the endeavor with two weeks of cross-country instruction before completing a check ride. Then, with naught but their fresh hands at the controls, the students will fly 50 to 100 nautical miles from Shell Army Heliport, navigating the national airspace without an instructor.
Second Lt. Kyler Suerth, one of the first flight school trainees in the new program, was anxious. “We are actually operating in civilian airspace the way aviators do,” the West Point graduate said before his flight in the release. “I am nervous, but every day I get a little less nerve wracked and a little more excited.”
Though he said that radio calls — and the challenge of shifting from military to civilian language — was his biggest hurdle, Suerth completed his solo flight this week.
The new model was introduced by the 1st Battalion, 223rd Aviation Regiment. Lt. Col. Andrew Bartlett, the unit’s commander, said the flight was a chance for students to combine the individual tasks they learned at the schoolhouse.
“We are asking them to think, to decide and to fly like real aviators,” said Bartlett, who supervised the program’s launch.
Flight school students will take at least two solo flights and up to five cross-country flights, depending on the weather, the Army said. Then, they move into tactical terrain flight training without the aid of GPS.
The solo flight is among the latest changes to the Army aviation pipeline as the service began an overhaul last year following a series of fatal accidents and concerns that new pilots were not developing essential flying skills.
Severe aviation accidents rose approximately 55% between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, according to Pentagon data released in 2025.
The Army also moved towards contractor-run training as it advanced at least two bidders for its rotary-wing program revamp in April.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
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