T-37 Tweet. On 24 November 1978, she became the first member of her class to fly solo. The second phase of instruction began in March 1979 in the Northrop T-38 Talon, a jet trainer. She received her pilot wings at the conclusion of this training, and was selected to become a flight instructor. There remained some training before she could join an operational unit. First, there was a week of Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training. The top-ranking members of the class went on to fly single-pilot aircraft, while the others became co-pilots. Most single-pilot aircraft were combat aircraft, which woman could not yet fly, so she stayed on at Vance as a T-38 Talon instructor pilot. This involved four weeks of pilot instructor training, which was conducted at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. She was the first woman to become a T-38 instructor pilot, and the only woman flight instructor at Vance between September 1979 and December 1982. Now a captain, Collins set her sights on becoming an astronaut. To achieve this goal, she aimed to graduate from the USAF Test Pilot School. Entry required at least one year as an aircraft commander in an operational aircraft and over one thousand hours flying time. She had already accumulated over a thousand hours flying as an instructor at Vance, but the USAF does not consider a trainer an operational aircraft, unlike a fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, transport or refueling aircraft. Collins requested an assignment flying the Convair F-106 Delta Dart, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II or Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, but women were still not permitted to fly combat aircraft, so she was assigned to Travis Air Force Base in California, to fly the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, a transport aircraft that had been her 21st choice, as a co-pilot. She flew long-range missions such as the "Double Diego" run to Diego Garcia via Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii, Anderson Air Force Base on Guam, and Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. The aircraft then flew to Clark and Diego Garcia again, before heading homeward via Singapore, Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa, Yokota Air Force Base in Japan and Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. She also flew the "coral run" to Kwajalein Atoll, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll and Midway Atoll, and to European destinations in Germany, Spain, Italy, Turkey and the United Kingdom in