Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW)

Flight school is broke down into two basic stages, Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW) and Advanced Aircraft Track (AAT). This is all proceeded by the two weeks of Aeromed and systems mentioned in a previous post. The IERW portion is further subdivided into three stages: Primary, Instruments, and Basic Warfighting Skills (BWS). These courses are constantly being updated and changed so this information is dated; however, the current schedule for each of these courses is as follows. Primary consists of eight weeks of training and around 50 hours of flight time. All of the training is conducted in real aircraft. Instruments is another eight weeks of training. It too consists of around 50 hours, though only about half of that time is flown in the aircraft; the other half is done in simulators. The final course in IERW is BWS. It is only four weeks in length and will accrue a little over 20 hours of flight time. It is currently conducted in OH-58s but has used TH-67s in the past. Upon the completion of these courses, the common core of flight school is completed and students select for and begin to train in their advanced airframes.