Milton, Fla. - Whiting Field is a teeny, tiny military base with an enormous task.

More than half of all pilots in the Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Navy will spend the first six months of their training here in Milton, Fla.

The student pilots spend time in simulators, time in class, time in pre-briefings and debriefings and finally time above it all, in the cockpit.

They learn to loop, dive, talk to towers and bring their plane safely to the ground again – a minimum of 300 hours of training per student. The men and women spend six months learning if they have what it takes to graduate to the next level of training before a new crop of hopefuls arrive. The base churns out more than 1,200 pilots a year.

All of this makes Whiting Field the busiest aviation complex in the world with 1.2 million flight operations a year, surpassing even Atlanta’s international airport. Across the Department of Defense, Whiting Field’s pilots account for just 11 percent of all DOD flights.

The planes fly over Florida and Alabama. Specifically, the DOD owns four airfields in Baldwin County. Pilots use only two to practice landing maneuvers. Military leaders say their job would be impossible without the fields and the support of Alabama residents.

“We can’t meet the national military strategy without Alabama,” said Randy Roy, community plans liaison officer “This is a very patriotic community.”

But for a small number of residents, the need for quiet above far outweighs the needs of national security. Last month Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson sent the base a letter requesting a meeting to discuss what her citizens consider a public nuisance. Over the years a small number of residents in Fairhope and Foley have called to move the flight patterns, prohibit military aircraft and even move Whiting Field.

But the $1.1 billion operation is impossible to move. Noise studies have shown that the military jets are within health and safety requirements. And the pilots have to practice in real world scenarios at real airports.

“We don’t just do things here because we can,” said Capt. Mark Murray, commodore of Training Air Wing Five, at Whiting Field. “There’s a lot of incredible support in this area. We are always mindful of that and to always treat people with dignity and respect. We’re good neighbors and we have requirements to train. We make sure they are all in compliance.”

Pilot training – A binary business

Practice does in fact, make perfect.

For military pilots that means practice on the ground in a simulator. In a chair, reviewing not just the vocal commands but also shutting your eyes and flipping imaginary cockpits switches. And in the classroom, reviewing types of flights, spins and maneuvers.

Murray compares the intense training to an athlete’s “touches on the ball.”

“You need to practice so it becomes second nature, so it becomes a rhythm,” he said. “What you learn first is what you learn best. We have all this practice before you ever strap on an airplane.”

No pilot is sent up alone before they are ready.

“There has to be no doubt they are safe to fly solo,” Murray said. “We can like them but flying is binary - you are either safe or you’re not safe. Your family members trusted me to treat you professionally and keep you safe. I can’t violate that.”

While military members still call the film “Top Gun” the best recruitment tool ever, life at flight school isn’t all dogfights and beach volleyball. It’s none of that, in fact.

At Whiting Field, pilots can be found in hours’ worth of briefings before and after each flight. The most dedicated to their craft spend all their free time in the giant, black bulbous simulators. The machines stand taller than a one-story building and cost $1 million each when they were first purchased. Whiting Field has nine.

Inside the dome the pilots sit in a cockpit and are surrounded by a virtual airfield and sky. The machine doesn’t simulate movement because the graphics are so realistic you find yourself tilting and shifting on your own as the digital sky passes.

Military pilots here have already faced their first weeding out process before arrive. They’ve spent time in the classroom and on a few, basic flights in civilian aircraft. Here, they learn military flying, complete with acrobatics. Some wash out completely. Others find the high powered, aerobatic twists and turns are not quite their calling.

“You will find out if this is the right place for you,” Murray said. “This is about flying but it is also about producing high quality officers.”

After graduation, they are sent to the next school to learn their particular aircraft – high powered jets, helicopters or large propeller driven aircraft. The choice is made based on their personal preference, performance and the needs of the military.

“We may decide for you that this is not the path for you,” Murray said.

“What we do here ensures they are going to be highly likely of being successful at the next level of training where it becomes more expensive and more difficult,” he said. “They have to have a really good foundation and they have to be able to handle emergencies. We give them the confidence so if something bad happens they are going to be successful.”

Into the wild blue yonder

The orange and white T-6B Texan II turboprop trainer doesn’t look like much.

The tiny plane measures just 33 feet long but its 1,100 horsepower engine gives budding pilots a heck of a ride. Among airplanes it is a sports car. A fast one.

“It is incredibly powerful, fully aerobatic,” Murray said. “It’s a fantastic airplane.”

Inside, pilots manage glass cockpits, touchscreens that have replaced the clunky dials of previous warbirds.

Whiting Field is home to 141, T-6 aircraft and 125, TH-57 Sea Ranger helicopters - far too many to safely buzz around the airfield at once.

The pilots head into Alabama to practice their skills and gain real world flying experience.

Murray said there they can see different airport configurations, learn how to enter civilian flight paths, adapt to more narrow runways and learn to communicate with civilian tower personnel – all necessary skills to make them proficient aviators, he said.

“This gives them the opportunity to see something different and enhance their situational awareness,” Murray said. “It effects their decision making process.”

In Baldwin County the pilots practice landing at the municipal airports in Gulf Shores and Fairhope as well as at fields the military owns in Barin and Summerdale. Weather dictates which flight patterns they use for the day.

In 2009 the DOD spent roughly $40 million to expand the landing trips at Barin and Summerdale to a length of 4,000 feet to accommodate the aircraft.

The military says neighbors near the airfields have been largely supportive, though there is a handful who file complaints, sometimes on a weekly basis, and continue to ask that the flights stop or the base move. Commanders at Whiting Field have responded to complaints those residents have filed with Congressional leaders and regularly have the noise level tested to make sure their planes and pilots are keeping to health and safety standards. Each time, the results show that they are.

“This is a $1.1 billion operation. Moving it is in no way feasible,” Roy said. “We’re limited to working in an environment with certain runways and finding a place unencumbered with other aviation operations. We’re fairly limited.”

Military planes have been flying over Baldwin County since 1942 when Barin Field opened, just before Whiting Field did so that World War II pilots could prepare for and enter the ongoing war.

There was a pause in the flights from 2009 to 2011 while the Navy expanded and improved the runways. In nearby neighborhoods that were constructed during those years the planes seemed to appear out of nowhere when the construction finished.

Military leaders said a major contributor to resident complaints is Alabama’s non-disclosure laws, which means real estate agents don’t have to tell buyers that an airfield is located nearby. If a buyer doesn’t do their due diligence on their own, they won’t know if an airfield, or any other unusual neighbor, is nearby.

Roy said he knows that even though Whiting Fields’ planes are operating within federal standards, he understands that the engine noise can be irritating.

“If you hear a mosquito buzzing, is it a nuisance? Of course it is,” he said. “We try to be sensitive. Noise is relative. We’ve met with the residents of Baldwin County to explain why we fly and what we do. They understand it is necessary.”

With each class of pilots at Whiting Field, the idea of public service, of being great officers and great pilots, is a lesson Murray places above all else.

“You took an oath. You accepted a commission. That needs to matter. Flying is a fantastic war fighting skill that we need but we also need talented officers,” he said. “We are a public service, this is a public trust.”

Murray said with each new class that arrives, he sees both dedication and determination.

“We have great people come in our door. You always wonder if the next generation is going to be as committed. Yes they are clear-eyed and ready,” he said.