North American T-6 Texan / SNJ / Harvard

I appreciate everyone of you who have served in our military and "earned your wings" in the Pilot Maker. I earned my Private Pilot's license in the T-6G at 17 years old in 2003. My flight instructor owned the airplane, and I don't know if he was brave enough or dumb enough to let me fly it. Hardest part was finding a check pilot who was qualified to check me out. North American produced some great airplanes.

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Class 50 G Perrin. 3rd hr in one when I was told to make an instrument take off, sheesh. I still have no idea why I didn't take out several runway lights. I must have bounced just right between them My Instructor had both feet on the cross bar with a cigar and was laughing his cottin pickin butt off while I was still wondering what had happened. sigh.

Incidentally, is anyone left from 50 G Perrin? If so contact me.

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In 1943 I first flew the SNJ at Barin Field while in Pensacola, Fl. This was our first training with retractable gear after flying Vultee "vibraters" at Whiting. This was a versitile, very maneuverable, fun to fly plane. It is no wonder that so many are still flying today. I am jealous of you guys that own one.

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I was a V5 Class 2B45 at Pensacola NAS in Feb 1945 - flew SNV Vultee Vibrators at Elyson Field,then flew the SNJ (Instrument flight training)at Whiting Field. Got my Wings of Gold & Ensign Bar after finishing advanced training in SNB2C A /C at Corey Field. I will never forget one "Unusual attitude" under the hood recovery on a SNJ flight at Whiting Field - the routine - first level your wings then stop the altimeter - I got the wings level but unknowingly I was upside down - ended up pulling thru the 1 /2 loop and tried to stop the altimeter - (almost did stop it) - but it sure took a lot of forward stick pressure. Flying the SNJ in the Volunteer Reserves after WWII at Port Columbus in Columbus, Ohio was great in 1946 and 1947 when many veterans returned to college - some great memories from long ago. Flew PBYs out of Bronson Field Seaplane base at Perdido Bay and then PB4Y1 and PB4Y2s at NAS Hutchinson, KS.
Yes, I well remember the tracks for our feet in those SNJs.

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I took my basic training in Cornell Chipmonks at Cap de Madelaine in Quebec in 1943. All of my fellow classmates were posted to western Canada to train on mutti engines. Though my marks were very good my name was missing and I thought I had flunked. One of the guys said " you lucky ....., you got the only posting to Borden". He was right, I had been posted to #1 SFTS Camp Borden north of Toronto to train on Harvards, the Canadian AT6...It was a great aircraft, I graduated in May 1944 as a Pilot Officer. As a staff pilot, and subsequent tranfer to the RCNFAA (Navy) I accumulated about 800 hours in this aircraft. If anyone should be reading this who was alive during that period, my nickname was Beau...

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Started flying the T-6 in 1949, class 50G, at Connally AFB, Waco, Texas, ended up after B-25 multi engine training as a basic instructor at Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo. 651 hours in the T-6 C,D, and G. Most memorable flight: student was having trouble with climbing turns on instruments in a T6G, so we got to 11,300 feet, then time to return to base. Told him to do a three turn spin and recover while still on instruments. He over corrected, spun the other way. Did another, same result. After third or fourth failure to come out we were getting down, so I said,"I've got it." My recovery attempt didn't work either, though I'd never had any problem previously or afterward. By then we were getting pretty low so I said, "Pop the (instrument) hood and if it doesn't come out, bail out." My next attempt worked, but we came out the bottom with about 300 feet to spare and somewhere around red line, pulled 6 Gs. My legs ached for about the next two hours. That summer we lost 7 planes,7 students and 4 instructors. A tech rep came from North American to give us a pep talk. Eventually there were no more accidents. Only one was ever accounted for, a Belgian student who a witness saw doing rudder controlled stalls, got into a dive and pulled the wings off. For my 60th birthday my kids hired a plane and pilot to give me a half hour ride. After about 10 minutes it seemed as though it hadn't been a day since the last previous flight. It was a great and rugged plane, just needed careful control on both take-off and landing. One of my buddies ground looped both left and right on his last flight during basic training and got both wing tips. The only one I damaged was from allowing a student to run a wing over an unlit boundary marker on a very dark night.

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Started flying the T-6 in 1949, class 50G, at Connally AFB, Waco, Texas, ended up after B-25 multi engine training as a basic instructor at Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo. 651 hours in the T-6 C,D, and G. Most memorable flight: student was having trouble with climbing turns on instruments in a T6G, so we got to 11,300 feet, then time to return to base. Told him to do a three turn spin and recover while still on instruments. He over corrected, spun the other way. Did another, same result. After third or fourth failure to come out we were getting down, so I said,"I've got it." My recovery attempt didn't work either, though I'd never had any problem previously or afterward. By then we were getting pretty low so I said, "Pop the (instrument) hood and if it doesn't come out, bail out." My next attempt worked, but we came out the bottom with about 300 feet to spare and somewhere around red line, pulled 6 Gs. My legs ached for about the next two hours. That summer we lost 7 planes,7 students and 4 instructors. A tech rep came from North American to give us a pep talk. Eventually there were no more accidents. Only one was ever accounted for, a Belgian student who a witness saw doing rudder controlled stalls, got into a dive and pulled the wings off. For my 60th birthday my kids hired a plane and pilot to give me a half hour ride. After about 10 minutes it seemed as though it hadn't been a day since the last previous flight. It was a great and rugged plane, just needed careful control on both take-off and landing. One of my buddies ground looped both left and right on his last flight during basic training and got both wing tips. The only one I damaged was from allowing a student to run a wing over an unlit boundary marker on a very dark night.

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I was the owner of SNJ 5-B, N3689F.From 1973 to 1980,
I put 501 HR's on a nice SNJ.

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Preflight at Malden MO in spring of '55. Apologies to the barge traffic at Cpe Girardo. It was early 'night owl' training for later duty in Nam.

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I flew AT6 Harvard Mk2's and Mk4's for total 7 years, (1961 to 1968), out of Calgary Alberta, Canada.
Harvards were just released from the RCAF and the company I flew for part time got a contract flying Hail-Suppression and purchased 4 MK2's and 3 years later upgraded to MK4's. The Harvard was strongly built and best suited for the turbulence associated with CB's that we flew close to while seeding.
Of the various aircraft I flew, I found the Harvard was the most challenging and fun to fly. One must be on top of it from start of taxi, to shut down at the end of the flight. If it got away from you on the ground, you were in for a ride of your life. (I speak from experience).
The batteries were old and we were continuously hand cranking them to get them started.
Aerobatics were part of the checkout and occasionally did them over the years to maintain our proficiency. Turbulence that we experienced would roll the aircraft and rather than fight it, just continue the roll.
The MK2's had rear seats removed and replaced with a gas tank. My longest flight was 6 hrs, 30 min. Thank heaven for the relief (pee) tube between your legs.
Our seeding pattern was a 50 mile track crawl, between slow flight and cruise, from west to east across the Province, following the forming and building of Thunderstorms.
The experience I acquired on the Harvard will never be forgotten and maybe some day write down my stories. I wonder if while sitting inside an AT6 today, if my memorized (RCAF) checklists would all come back to mind?
Jim Hall

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