Arsenaal NR 24 2015

November 11, 2015
Vultee BT-13 Valiant’s in formation above Pensacola Airstation 1943
With regard to the flying training we started all over again and after nine hours
with Lt. Stewart went solo again after being checked out by another Instructor
Olsen. Then followed more instruction and solo flying
It was all very interesting, stalls,
spinning, landing in small fields,
emergency landings and well simulated
ones. The Instructor cut out the engine
at any time and you had to push the
nose down at once and look for a field
to land in. At about thirty feet from
the ground the Instructor would open
the throttle again and you would climb
away. Another exercise was to side-slip
to a 50ft circle from 500ft without
power and making a three point
s t a l l e d l a n d i n g i n s i d e t h e w h i t e
circle.The next check at this stage was
at 20 hours and I failed the first two
but can't remember why. Anyway after
more solo and instruction from Lt.
Stewart the next two checks were
passed ok.
The next stage was 'C' which was the best part
as it was acrobatics. Loops, stall turns and the
roll off the top 'Immelman', inverted spins wing
over split' and snap rolls. The N3N3 was
perfect for this type of flying and could stand
any amount of abuse. On one occasion pulling
back too hard at the bottom of the dive at
120knots I 'blacked out' for a couple of
seconds and came to on my back at the top of
the loop. On 30 December 1941 I passed the
33 hour check on all the above with no bother
at all. Also had a couple of night hours flying
without using blind flying instruments. With all
the lights around there was always a horizon to
be seen and we landed over big flood lights at
the start of the runway. Next to the final checks
and I made a mess of the first one over the
landing in at 50ft making' S' turn approaches.
The next two tests were passed easily so I was
through to formation flying, but before that the
new SNV - 1 'Vultee Valiant' arrived which the
Instructors did not like at all.
Magazine ‘T Arsenaal• 20