The Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) currently recognizes eight test pilot schools. Pilots who successfully complete courses that are at least 10 months long, at any of these schools, are considered to have demonstrated the knowledge required of test pilots for the purpose of joining SETP. The SETP Constitution also allows graduates to join the Society upon graduation, provisionally, as an Associate Member. 

The recognized schools are:

Empire Test Pilot School

United States Naval Test Pilot School

United States Air Force Test Pilot School

French Test Pilot School (EPNER)

International Test Pilots School  - Recognized August 2017

National Test Pilot School  - Recognized February 1994

Indian Air Force Test Pilot School  - Recognized October 2004

Brazilian Test Pilot School (EFEV) Escola de Formacao em Ensaios em Voo  - Recognized April 2004

The following specific guidelines are intended as guidance for an assessment of a test pilot school that wishes to be recognized by SETP. The individual items should not be viewed as hard and fast requirements. Rather a school recognized by SETP should meet a significant majority of the items and the intent of all of them.   These guidelines are:

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES

• The school should be housed in an appropriate facility.
  1. The facility should be a permanent building, buildings, or portion of a building that is used exclusively by the school.
  2. The facility should house the school’s administration and faculty offices as well as provide satisfactory classrooms, briefing rooms, and a technical library.
  3. The facility should include network and computer capacity sufficient for data reduction and report generation.
  4. The facility should include telemetry capabilities sufficient to train students in the use of real time control of flight tests.
  5. The permanent facility should also house any specialized training systems used by the school (laboratories, simulators, etc.
     
     

• The school should have appropriate aircraft.
  
  1. The school should have priority access to a varied fleet of aircraft that are suitably instrumented to perform the core flight test training functions.
  2. The instrumentation systems should be supportable on site.
  3. The aircraft should be representative of the type of courses offered (fighters, transports, helicopters).
     
     

•  The school should have qualified flight instructors.
  1. The in-flight instruction should be done by qualified test pilots. As evidence of qualification, the majority of the instructors should meet the requirements for membership in SETP in the grade of Associate Member or higher.
  2. The core of the in-flight instructional staff should be full time personnel whose first priority is test pilot instruction.
  3. The full-time core of instructor pilots can be supplemented by part-time flight instructors.
     
     

• The school should have qualified academic instructors.
  1. Academic instructors should have flight test experience.
  2. The core of the academic instructional staff should be composed of full-time personnel whose first priority is course development, preparation, teaching and tutoring students.
  3. The core of instructors can be supplemented by part-time instructors.
  4. Academic instructors should be degreed personnel in an appropriate field.
  5. Academic instructors may also function as flight instructors.
     
     

• The course of instruction offered by the school being considered for recognition should be of sufficient breadth and duration.
  1. Introductory or short courses in flight test are not appropriate and should not, by themselves, constitute the curriculum being recognized by SETP. The minimum duration for an approved course of instruction is at least 10 months. While it is not the intent of this SOP to specify in detail the duration and content of courses, SETP-recognized schools should cover performance, flying qualities and systems flight testing.  The course of instruction being considered should not deviate significantly from these parameters.
     
     
• The school should have satisfactory course textbooks and notes, appropriate for the types of courses offered.
  
  
• The school should have demonstrated stability over time.
  1. This can be shown by a history of at least six classes with graduates who are either Members of SETP or who would qualify for membership in SETP at the grade of at least Associate Member.
     
     

PROCEDURES

• Upon receipt of a written request for recognition, the President of SETP will nominate a chairman of a three-member ad hoc committee to review the qualifications of the school using the above guidelines. The chairman of the review committee will select two additional members.
  
  
•  The members of the review committee:
  1. All must be members in the Society in at least the grade of Member, and
  2. at least one member of the committee must have experience teaching at a test pilot school recognized by SETP, and
  3. at least one member of the committee must have previously served on the SETP Membership Committee, and
  4. the committee must include fixed and rotary wing test pilots, as applicable to the training program being reviewed for recognition.
  5. All members must be approved by the Board of Directors.
     
     
• The review must include an on-site visit of the school. Travel costs of this review should be borne by the school requesting recognition. The Society should make every effort to minimize this cost.
  
  
• After the review is completed the review team will submit a report including a recommendation to the Board of Directors who will then vote on the request for recognition.
  
  

PERIODIC REVIEWS

• After five years of initial recognition, each recognized test pilot school will be periodically reviewed to ensure that the school has maintained a sufficient majority of the above guidelines for recognition.
  
  
• The procedures used for periodic reviews may be a streamlined version of the original process described above in paragraph 3, involving a review by a smaller committee with as little as a single member.
  
  
• The reviewer(s), per the above procedures, will submit a report to the Board of Directors with a recommendation on continued recognition. The report may include a recommendation that subsequent reviews be done at a ten-year period if the review report warrants confidence that the school will continue to meet the majority of the specified guidelines for a longer period.
  
  

STATUS

• The following table indicates the test pilot schools that are recognized by SETP. This material should be posted on the SETP website (setp.org) when any part of the status changes.