Air Force chief is happy with female pilots interested in joining RTF

BANGKOK, April 25 (TNA) -- Royal Thai Air Force chief Tritos Sonjaeng is impressed with female pilots’ unexpected interest in joining the Royal Thai Air Force (RTF) and said they would be contracted to serve the force for at least three years. When the application period for female pilots ended on April 24, the Royal Thai Air Force saw eight applicants, a number which exceeded its target for the first year of its female pilot recruitment when public relations on the issue were weak and the number of female pilots is still limited locally. ACM Tritos said that the applicants would undergo academic tests, checkups, interviews and physical fitness tests. The list of the recruits will be known on May 18. Then military training will take three months and the recruits will become pilot officers in either late July or early August. The female pilots will be required to remain with the Royal Thai Air Force for at least three years. The recruitment of female pilots for jet fighters would be a matter of the future and normally the initial recruitment of female pilots was for transport aircraft, ACM Tritos said. The Royal Thai Air Force chief also said that the Air Force was trying to make its male pilots proud to be Air Force pilots serving the nation and people to retain them instead of letting them join commercial airlines. (TNA)