Spain’s Princess Leonor made her first solo flight on Thursday in the Pilatus P-21 training aircraft used by all students of the Air Force and Space Force as part of the training that began on 1 September at the General Air Academy (AGA) in San Javier (Murcia). The heir to the throne finally flew the aircraft without the company of an instructor, after completing the relevant simulator classes and flights with one of the academy’s teachers, preliminary steps before what is known as the “release”, according to information released on Friday by the Royal Household, which published several images of the moment. In them, the Princess of Asturias can be seen finalising preparations in the cockpit and making the gesture to start the engine before take-off, as well as her subsequent smooth landing on the San Javier runway after flying over the Mediterranean.
Afterwards, she was greeted by some of her classmates, who congratulated her on her achievement and with whom she discussed how it had gone. Zarzuela has also shared other images of her training over the last three months, with classes in the simulator and with her flight instructor, as well as her first flight with her. The Princess of Asturias joined the Academy as a fourth-year student, with the rank of second lieutenant, beginning her training somewhat later than her classmates, as she had not completed the previous three courses at San Javier, having previously attended the General Air Academy and the Naval Academy.
As a general rule, students usually make their first flight with an instructor a month or a month and a half after arriving at the academy, although there are no fixed deadlines for this to happen, and only once the instructor considers them sufficiently prepared does the first solo flight take place. Before that, it is necessary to receive theoretical training on the aircraft, which has replaced the C-101, popularly known as “Culopollo”, and then put it into practice in the simulators. First in the CBT (Computer Based Training), which is simpler and has three screens that provide images of what the exterior would look like, as well as a replica of the controls.
After that, they move on to the FTD (Full-flight Training Device), an advanced simulator that replicates the Pilatus cockpit and provides a 180-degree view, giving a virtually real experience of what it is like to fly one of these aircraft. They also train with all the equipment they will carry on board, which weighs about 7 kilos. Once they have completed their first flight with an instructor, the students combine this practice with classes in the flight simulator until they are considered to have the knowledge and skills to fly the Pilatus on their own, as Princess Leonor has now done. On her first day in San Javier, the Princess of Asturias had her first contact with the aircraft she ended up flying.
She then told the press that she is approaching her final year of military training ‘eager to learn’ to fly but ‘little by little’. At the time, the director of the Academy, Colonel Luis González Asenjo, did not want to go into details about the timing of Second Lieutenant Bourbon’s training or when her first flight with her instructor might take place, let alone whether she would be “released”, as students do not always manage to finish piloting a plane solo for various reasons. The heir to the throne is thus following in the footsteps of both her father, King Felipe VI, and her grandfather, Juan Carlos I, who also studied at San Javier and learned to fly solo, although both did so in the C-101.