A provision in the annual must-pass defense bill may require the Air Force to reconsider winding down a reserve unit focused on helping cadets learn to fly and determine how to replace the pilots’ expertise if they left.

“We ought to give every cadet the opportunity to fly and try and decide if that’s a career they want to pursue or not,” said Congressman Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs, who worked on the legislation. The proposal in the National Defense Authorization Act passed the House earlier this week.  

Crank’s proposal requires the Air Force to determine how it would replace the training reservists in the 70th Flying Training Squadron provided before shutting it down. The Air Force had planned to reallocate the position in the squadron to other missions.

Right now, the experienced pilots provide over a quarter of the training capacity, Crank said.

“It seemed like something we had to do,” he said of the proposal.   

Any plan to shutter the unit must include “retention of advanced mission sets, simulator training and evaluator pilot functions,” according to the bill language. 

Such a plan could simply entail keeping the 70th Flying Training Squadron in place, Crank said.

In addition to the proposal to reexamine training capacity, Crank has set aside $4 million in the proposed NDAA to keep the reservists, who number around 40, at the Air Force Academy working alongside full-time airmen to teach cadets to fly gliders and powered aircraft and how to parachute.

Many of the reservists also work at United Airlines Flight Training Center, he said. 

“They are probably some of the best trainers, frankly, in the Air Force,” Crank said. 

While the NDAA likely faces some headwinds in the Senate after it failed in that chamber earlier this month, Crank expects this provision will likely be noncontroversial. He also expects other lawmakers on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors will help push the proposal through.