T-34 Mentor and First Solo
My Navy logbook is old but legible; it was kept by a squadron yeoman. My first flight was on December 6, 1962, in a T-34, and my instructor was Bernard “Bunny” Marks. Bunny was a great instructor with a style referred to as “screamer,” which was common in those days. The student would make a mistake, and the instructor would scream a correction. Throughout flight school, there were a lot of mistakes by all of us.
The T-34 was a sweet airplane, loosely based on the Beech Bonanza. What it lacked in swagger, it made up by being roomy and stable—perfect for a basic trainer.
Exactly two months after that first flight, on my thirteenth flight, Bunny and I were out learning and screaming. We took off from Saufley Field (a former Naval Air Station near Pensacola), and Bunny directed me to land at one of the outlying fields.* The syllabus did not say on your thirteenth flight you will be solo for the first time. We all knew it would happen between the 13th and the 15th flight, but the timing was up to the instructor. When the plane came to a stop, Bunny unstrapped and got out.
Tie cut off after the first solo
As I had not been the greatest student ever and since Bunny had constantly yelled at me, I had no idea what was going on. So, I said, “What’s going on?”
Bunny told me to take off, make four touch-and-goes, and then stop and pick him up. No one was more surprised than me. My suave reply came out, “Are you sure I’m ready?”
“Yes!” came the reply.
“How do you know?”
“I just know.”
Off I went. Strangely enough, he was right.
That Friday night at the Officer’s Club, all the new soloists got their tie cut off amid the cheers of the instructors and fellow students. It was a rite of passage or manhood or something. I was very proud and excited. During the celebration, I was standing with Bunny and another student I had gone to high school with, Gary Sheltren, and his instructor, Dick Jenner. Gary was a few weeks behind me and was struggling. Dick liked him and wanted to encourage Gary as much as possible, so he said, “Gary, I’m going to get you through. It’s not that hard; it’s just like driving a car… You do drive, don’t you?”
Tragically, a month later, Gary was killed in an automobile accident. On the first day of flight school, we were told more students are killed on the highway than in airplanes.
T-28 Trojan and a Night Solo
After primary flight training, I switched to the T-28 for the next phase, and it was a monster for a new student. (Editor’s note: see the comparison table below.) Its big prop created so much wash over the rudder that it took a heavy foot just to keep it on the runway for takeoff. I would lock my seat all the way forward, add the power, push with all my might on the right rudder, and hope I lifted off before I went off the side of the runway.
One notable event in this phase of training was the first-night solo flight. The procedure called for 13-14 instructors and students to take off shortly before dark, fly around for a short time, land, the instructors get out, and then the students take off by themselves. According to the procedure, the last student in line on landing became the first student in the line to take off.
Tail end Charlie
It wasn’t on my night flight, but a few weeks later, fellow student Vince Donile was “tail-end Charlie” for landing and the first one to take off. Unluckily and unnoticed, a low overcast covered the field while the instructors were leaving the planes. We had not received instrument training and couldn’t navigate above an overcast. Vince took off and flew right through the clouds. The instructors on the ground were dumbstruck and quickly headed for a radio. “Vince, where are you?” they radioed.
“I really don’t know,” said Vince, “but I’ve got thirteen guys following me.”
Vince later became a Blue Angel.
Navy trainer aircraft comparison
| T-34B Mentor (1960s) | T-28B Trojan (1960s) | T-6B Texan II (modern) | |
| Manufacturer | Beechcraft | North American | Textron Aviation |
| Length | 25 ft 10 in | 32 ft 11 in | 33 ft 2.5 in |
| Wingspan | 32 ft 10 in | 40 ft 7 in | 33 ft 5 in |
| Empty weight | 2,239 lbs | 6,502 lbs | 4,707 lbs |
| Engine power | 225 hp | 1,425 hp | 1,100 hp |
| Maximum speed | 162 knots | 290 knots | 316 knots |
T-34B data from www.history.navy.mil; maximum speed for the T-34B is much slower than the turboprop T-34C. T-28B data from Training the Right Stuff by Mark A. Frankel and Tommy H. Thomason and www.aahs-online.org. T-6B data from www.navy.mil and Wikipedia.
Note: A naval outlying landing field (NOLF) is an airfield with minimal facilities and no squadrons based there that support operations of a naval air station, such as training landings and takeoffs.
