Sheppard, AF officials retire workhorse of pilot training

AF Print news ^ | July 31, 2009 | John Ingle

[Jet Jaguar]

[Cindy]

Thread Bump.

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks Cindy.

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[QBFimi]

What? The Cessna Flying Dog Whistle bites the dust? Say it’s not true! What a great little acrobatic and formation ship. The White Rocket (T-38) by comparison, ate up 10,000’ to do a 3g loop. Ugh. Bo-ring.

By the time I went through (1968), snap rolls where prohibited in the Tweety Bird. I couldn’t resist - I tried one; it was OK. Then I told an instructor pilot friend, who said “next time you do one, look out the rear view mirror”. I about passed out - you could actually see the ‘T’ tail bending over! Never again. (The old pilots/bold pilots, but no old bold pilots holds true.)

BTW, I was in Undergraduate Pilot Training class 70-02 at Vance AFB, OK

[org.whodat]

I've watched the little thing take off many times there, but the future is here:

Training the Top Guns of drone aircraft

The Pentagon is graduating its first class of Predator pilots from the elite Air Force Weapons School in an attempt to keep the best in the air grounded in the fast-growing fighting program.

By Julian E. Barnes

June 07, 2009

Reporting from Washington — The Pentagon is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School -- a version of the Navy's Top Gun program -- in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest growing aircraft programs.

The elite flight schools of the Air Force and Navy are most closely associated with smart, tough fighter jocks. But over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MQ-1 Predator and more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper craft have become, to many in the Pentagon, the most important aircraft the U.S. has deployed.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/07/nation/na-topgun-drone7

[JoenTX]

Our ranch is directly under Sheppard’s routine training routes. Over the years I’v seen T-38s on a near daily basis coming over but the treat was to see a T-37 as odd it may seem. The T-38s and T-37s rarely flew the same patterns during training so to get a Tweety Bird was a welcomed change.

Yeah it’s a small, very subsonic, and unimpressive airplane when compared to its sexier counterparts. But the T-37 should be right up there with the F-4, B-52, A-6, F-16, A-10, etc. as the workhorse aircraft of the post-WW2 era that lived well beyond their years and gave the country service that was never expected.

It was “hard” to kill in service, after so many tries throughout the years, and that is the best compliment you can pay to an piece of hardware. To those that understand, it’s the same compliment being paid to 40+ year old M-14s that are being drug out of basement armories and dusted off for use in Iraq and Afghantistan.

[immadashell]

I was in 69-06 at Reese. After UPT my assignment was Tweet IP at Reese! My last active duty assignment was as IP at PIT in San Antonio at Randolph. Even with all its drawbacks, there wasn't a better airplane for its intended mission than the Tweetie Bird. This is a very nostalgic story for me.

[MindBender26]

You guys would fly those dog whistles over the BOQ at Ft. Sill for practice ILSs, one every 60 seconds, starting at 0700 Sunday mornings in 1966.

After a good Saturday night, this was HARD on us! :)

[GeronL]

I wonder if civilianized T-37’s will be for sale?

[alfa6]

Pics Y'all

An A-37 varaint

Another A-37 pic

[BP2]

Like most who trained in the Tweet found, it was noisy, uncomfortable, and the air condition spit ice at you on descent.
On a hot day, the word "sweat" is inadequate to describe how much body fluid you expire with a parachute on your back,
helmet on your noggin and canopy locked in position, No. 3 in line for takeoff.

BUT, it was a very forgiving airframe. It was a lot of fun to fly, be it acro in the area, unpressurized spin-training from 25,000',
student puking in his glove, working on instrument cross-check on a non-precision approach, offset trail in formation, or
dodging eagles in a low level flight ... and I learned a lot.

We'll miss you, Tweetie...

[Jet Jaguar]

Many thanks!

[JoenTX]

Nice pics...

The little bugger is still, about 50 years after its inception, still in service in a number of South American countries among others.

So underappreciated and under-guaged but a half century on it’s still a viable force to reckon with. That is rare, folks. Rare.

All of those driving ‘57 Chevies to work on a routine basis will know what I mean.

[BP2]

LOL, few things can be as fun (and dangerous), than 8 IPs on a 4-ship
cross-country.

[XHogPilot]

Good bye trusty steed.
About the only thing I didn’t do in this plane was crash. Thrashed it, over-G’d it, slid, flopped, slipped, rolled, and looped it. Jet solo-ed in it, puked in it, got puked-on in it, formated, navigated, instrumentated, and most importantly, instructed some of the finest men of America in it.
Oh, and began a still going strong 28 year professional aviation career in it.
UPT Class 81-04 Williams AFB, AZ.
T-37 Instructor 1981-1984 Williams AFB, AZ.

[alfa6]

I don’t know where the pic of the Tweets after the ice storm is hiding on the server or I would have posted it as well:-)

Have a great weekend

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[exit82]

Here’s a pic of Tweet after a snow....http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&handle=Giacomo&number=22&#slideanchor

[alfa6]

Linkee to the pic I mentioned earlier

http://mae.engr.ucdavis.edu/~aerobrick/pictures/random/T-37_ice.jpg

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[4mer Liberal]

Yeah...the noises emitted from these guys made you wonder if a crash was imminent.

Goodbye, old friend.