Flying at YUAS is all part of the Elementary flight training silabus that, eventually, will end with your RAF wings. the course consists of around 60 hours, consists of ground and air training and must be completed by the time you graduate university in order to continue with the training.

The main attraction for most undergraduates who join YUAS is the prospect of free pilot training. This training is given in the new Grob G115E Tutor aircraft, a carbon-fibre, twin-seat, fully aerobatic training aircraft. You can expect to fly 20-30 hours each year, and with equivalent flying training outside now costing anything up to £100 an hour, you can see that this is a valuable attraction.

Flying training is given by fully-qualified RAF flying instructors, and the syllabus is identical to that flown by every pilot entrant to the RAF. Indeed, if you do go on to join the RAF as a pilot it will count as the first part – about a quarter - of the training towards your wings. The syllabus includes, general handling, instrument flying, navigation, aerobatics and formation flying, and around 20% of this is flown solo. Even our ground branch members are allocated some flying hours each year and are encouraged to fly whenever possible.

The training in the air is backed by comprehensive practical and theoretical ground training, much of it in the form of computer-based training. Because our training syllabus is different to that provided by a civilian school you will not be able to gain a Private Pilots Licence (PPL) directly through us, but the training and experience you can gain with YUAS will go a long way towards helping gain formal civil licences. In addition, as a budding military pilot, you will gain skills such as aerobatics, formation flying and low-level navigation that most PPL holders only dream of.

Although not a formal part of the flying training syllabus, you will also gain the opportunity to fly in other RAF aircraft. Over the past few years YUAS students have flown in, and often handled the controls of, such aircraft as Hercules, Hawks, Tornados, Pumas and many other operational and training aircraft.