THE BIRTH OF A PILOT

Licensed as a fighter pilot in 1998, Marc Scheffler has logged more than 4,500 flight hours — including nearly 2,200 hours on the Mirage 2000D — and more than 150 combat missions... A operational career he recounted in La Guerre vue du ciel. And yet, in 1990, when he walked into an Air Force recruitment office, the fighter pilot career he dreamed of was still a distant promise. Beyond his passion for aircraft, he was certainly not the most academically gifted of the baccalaureate candidates hoping to enter the "Pupilles de l'Air" school. Yet for him, becoming a fighter pilot was not merely a childhood dream — it was above all an ideal and the project of an entire life. Eight years fraught with obstacles would then follow his admission to the Pupilles de l'Air school. Years during which every candidate would face ever more demanding trials. Failure was never far away, and Marc Scheffler would have to hold on with all his strength. Supported by his instructors, and despite the obstacles, each flight, each new aircraft — whether a glider, a DR-400, a Cap 10B, a Tucano or an Alphajet — only strengthened his resolve. For beyond the myth, the profession of fighter pilot demands excellence and sacrifice. A training that requires an iron will...