His military training began on 6 April 1936 at the 2nd Air Warfare School ("Luftkriegsschule 2") at Gatow, on the south-western outskirts of Berlin. He swore the National Socialist oath of allegiance on 21 April 1936. Flight training began on Monday, 7 August 1936 at Gatow. His first flight was in a Heinkel He 72 "Kadet" D-EYZA single engine biplane. Lent logged his first solo flight on 15 September 1936 in a Focke-Wulf Fw 44 "Stieglitz". By this time, Lent had accumulated 63 flights in his logbook. In conjunction with flight training, the students also learned to drive motorcycles and cars and during one of these training exercises, Lent was involved in a road accident, breaking his upper leg badly enough to prevent him from flying for five months. This did not adversely affect his classroom training and on 1 April 1937, after taking his commission examination, he was promoted to "Fähnrich". On 19 October 1937 Lent completed his flight training and was awarded the A/B License. He earned his wings on 15 November 1937. On 1 February 1938, he was promoted to "Oberfähnrich" (first ensign), and on 1 March 1938 to "Leutnant". By this time, he had made 434 flights in eight different types of aircraft and had accumulated 112 hours and 48 minutes flying time, mostly in daylight flights, in single engine training aircraft.