By Rui Hai and Li Jianwen

BEIJING, April 7 -- The first batch of female flight instructors of the PLA Air Force and the pilot cadets they instructed leap into the blue sky together in China's primary trainer aircraft CJ-6 at the training base of a regiment under the PLA Air Force Aviation University in late March.

It is learnt that this is the first time for the Air Force to select female pilots from aviation units to assume flight instructors. They have had training courses at the Aviation University, the Harbin Flight Academy and an aviation brigade under the PLA Air Force successively, accumulating flight experience with different types of aircraft including primary trainers, advanced trainers and fighter jets.

In August last year, they finished the conversion training for flight instructors, which strictly followed the guideline of latest CJ-6 flight instructor training program and aimed to comprehensively improve their teaching capability.

As the first batch of female flight instructors assigned to the PLA Air Force, they have passed 36 theoretical and practical examinations with excellent performance at the end of February this year, completing the transition from combatants to instructors successfully.