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PIREP: Cessna T-373
| PIREP: Cessna T-373 |
| Description: |
The T-37 is in inventory only at those training command fields used specifically for primary training, which means, if you want to fly a Tweety Bird, you have to do it with a little southwestern sand in your teeth. And so it was that I found myself in Enid, Oklahoma at Vance Air Force Base. As a normal rule I feel intensely uncomfortable on military bases...something to do with having come of age in the middle of the anti-military environment of the mid-sixties. However in the new Air Force, and especially at Vance, I didn't get the usual feeling of super-starched military regimentation. For one thing, I didn't see one single crew cut on anybody below the rank of major and every third top lip sprouted a mustache.
Another thing contributing to Vance's more relaxed posture is the fact that it is staffed and operated almost entirely by civilians. The only function of the base is to teach flying, so the only military personnel on base are directly involved with the operational aspects of the flight line and base administration. Otherwise, all the support functions, even the aircraft maintenance, are done by civilian contractors. The ground crews are not only civilians, but some of the local girls have signed on, perhaps in hopes of catching a Captain. So the guy giving you the thumbs up signal for taxi might be one of the cutest crew chiefs you've ever seen.
After a morning spent learning how to eject, climb and otherwise claw my way out of a disabled T-37 in the air or on the ground, I reported to the flight operations office and met the IP (instructor pilot) who was going to show me what the T-37 was all about. Again I was pleasantly surprised. Captam Ron Smith was far from being the ultra-military type I had expected. Captain Ron turned out to be my kind of people... an airplane freak through and through. Who else would spend all day screaming around the sky at the taxpayers' expense and then go home to rub and polish on his own C-172?
A few minutes was spent in the equipment room getting a flight suit and parachute as well as going through an elaborate fitting exercise aimed at equipping me with the most uncomfortable oxygen mask and helmet they had available. Then it was out to the flight line. I felt just a bit conspicuous in my super-genuine USAF flight gear with my much longer than GI locks flapping in the wind. Oh well, it just helped tone down my fighter pilot swagger a bit.
One additional piece of gear necessary for working around T-37s is a set of ear muffs. They don't call the T-37 a six thousand pound dog whistle for nothing! The little J-69 engine is of the old centrifugal flow design, rather than being axial flow, which means it is really nothing but a kerosene burning siren. The noise generated by one T-37 is unreal, but at Vance there were around 65 of them lined up. The prairie dogs for miles around must spend most of their time with their little fingers in their ears.
Walking up to the Tweety Bird confirmed my earliest recollections; it's the perfect size airplane for two people and a couple of jets. It is barely waist high at the canopy rails and Captain Smith repeated the usual Air Force joke, which can't be repeated in its entirety here. It has to do with the -37 being the only USAF airplane you can stand on the ground and do something obscene into the cockpit. |
| Keywords: |
cessna, t-37, tweet, Cessna, T-37B, Tweety, Bird |
| Date: |
09.06.2008 09:40 |
| Hits: |
398 |
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0.00 (0 Vote(s)) |
| File size: |
23.2 KB |
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