Spain's Princess Leonor lands at air academy to begin her training as military pilot

For the very first time, Spain's Princess Leonor of Asturias wore the blue uniform of the Spanish air force on Monday to fly to the San Javier air base, where she will undergo a year's training as a military pilot. With a two-year background in the military, the heiress to the Crown arrived in the Murcia region aboard a Falcon aircraft shortly before 12 noon.

There, she greeted Colonel Director Luis Felipe González Asenjo and the senior commanders of the general air academy, among them Captain Abel Marín Rodríguez, who will be the squadron leader of the fourth course and her tutor for the next few months.

Doña Leonor de Borbón officially entered the academy as a princess, but she is now just another recruit at the San Javier military base. As of yesterday, she will have to square herself before her superiors and obey orders.

Afterwards, the princess signed her name in the book of honour. Following an initial meeting with the colonel director, the heiress was expected at the flight centre to change out of her blue uniform into green flight training overalls.

On her first day at the AGA, she was scheduled to see the flight simulator and go to the hangar to get a close-up view of the Pilatus training aircraft, with which she will make her first solo flight in a few weeks' time.

The princess climbed into one of the Pilatus aircraft in the hangar of the air base. She was accompanied by Commander Alberto Guzmán - the flight instructor who flew the Pilatus of King Felipe VI on 14 June, when he visited the academy on the occasion of the Aire25 festival, organised as a farewell to the Águila patrol and the C-101.

Before boarding the Pilatus, the princess said: "I am looking forward to learning to fly, but..." She then listened carefully to the instructions of Commander Guzmán, who showed her the cockpit controls.

In the days leading up to Leonor's arrival, the management of the military base stated that "there will be no special treatment" for the future monarch, whose routine in San Javier will be the same as for the rest of the students. Her days will begin with reveille at 6.30am. Then, she will have breakfast at 7am and her classes will last until 6pm, after which she will have free time to study, play sports or go for a walk until 10pm - the bedtime at the academy.

Although at the AGA academy Leonor will be treated as "just another student", the heir to the throne will have to combine her training with the institutional agenda established by the Royal Household, such as attending the National Day and the presentation in Oviedo of the prizes that bear her name. She is also expected to make official visits to the seat of the regional government, the regional assembly and the town halls of the main municipalities in the coming months.