A local kid makes good

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MGMcAnick
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Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:01 pm
Location: 12 NM from ICT @ 010º

A local kid makes good

Post by MGMcAnick »

As a fan of aviation and aviation history, I think it's important to "keep 'em flying". The fact that this young man, in his late 30s, is now approved to be the pilot in command of Doc will go a long way toward keeping Doc in the air.

https://www.b29doc.com/b-29-doc-adds-to ... 4-45020069
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.

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Bicycle Bill
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Location: Surrounded by Trumptards in Rockland, WI – a small rural village in La Crosse County

Re: A local kid makes good

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Nice article ... but makes me wonder how they did it in the war years for the four-engine heavy bombers like the B-17, B-24, and B-29.  You can't tell me EVERY command pilot in the 8th Air Force's 1000-plane raids was a grizzled old veteran with a couple thousand flight hours logged in the right-hand seat before moving over.

I suspect someone pointed at a likely-looking kid, fresh out of basic training, and said "left seat", and that's what you got trained as — unless you made a total hash of it and washed out.
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

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RayThom
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A local kid makes good

Post by RayThom »

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Chapter 17: INDIVIDUAL TRAINING OF FLYING PERSONNEL
Four weeks was the standard length of training at the replacement training centers until March 1942, when a nine-week course was instituted. Separate curricula were issued at that time for pilot and nonpilot training; the distinguishing feature of the latter curriculum was greater emphasis upon mathematics, target identification, photography, and meteorology. Until 1943 each preflight school exercised broad discretion in executing the prescribed program. The lack of uniform instruction proved a handicap in subsequent stages of aircrew training, and to correct this situation a single curriculum for all preflight students was published in April 1943. Final developments of the course were incorporated in a revision of May 1944, when the period of training was extended to ten weeks.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VI/AAF-VI-17.html
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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

MGMcAnick
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Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:01 pm
Location: 12 NM from ICT @ 010º

Re: A local kid makes good

Post by MGMcAnick »

A LOT of them were quite young. No problem. I started my private pilot training just shy of my 18th birthday.. No particular trick in learning to fly. I know several people who I think are complete idiots who have licenses.

I just finished reading a short book called Brennen's Circus, The Plane Who Wouldn't Die. Lt Brennen was 21. He and his crew successfully completed their assigned 25, then 30, then 50 missions in a B-17. They limped "The Circus" back to friendly territory on two engines that should not have kept running. His son Michael, who was adopted by a man named Beech, wrote the book after exhaustive research long after his father died.
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.

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