Army Flight School

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I wish I could find my dads Flight School book that he was given at Fort Rucker when he went through flight school back in the early 80's that showed the school cylibus from WOC School and all the phases, but I am sure it has changed since then especially with Flight School 21. Back when he went through they were still flying the old TH-55 in flight school and then on to the Hueys.

[chuckn49]

Things sure do change and, from what I've read here, for the better, too. I went through Army flight school in the late '60s. From beginning to end, it was approximately 9 months. After graduation, you went to your unit in country or, if selected, to one of the transition training schools for CH-47 or AH-1G.

Army aviation was conducted at Ft. Wolters for pre-flight (fixed and Rotary wing), and then to primary/basic at Ft. Wolters for R/W or Hunter for F/W. At Wolters you flew one of three basic trainers: TH-13; TH-23; or, TH-55. I flew the Matel Messerschmidt.

Most R/W pilots then went for advanced and tactical training at Ft. Rucker and some (unlucky ones, I was told) to Hunter AAF. At Rucker, we transitioned into TH-13S for instrument training. We received a "tactical" instrument ticket from this - not really comparable to the instrument training they now get by any stretch of the imagination despite the fact we were going into an area well known for lots of instrument weather.

Believe it or not, our instrument ground school consisted of 10 or so hours in the infamous and obsolete, even then, Link Trainer we inherited from the Air Force, I believe. They even had wings on them despite being used to train helicopter pilots. They had a collective pitch in them as well which, from what I could tell, did absolutely nothing. They were used primarily to teach instrument radio procedure, flight plan following, and instrument scanning. Other than that, I didn't think they were much good.

After instrument training, we finally began our transition into the Huey. We began with ground school, of course, but quickly got into the cockpit. I still remember vividly sitting in the cockpit of the Huey for the first time. It was awesome compared to the very basic TH-55. They gave us the manual and only a day to memorize the start-up procedure. I remember sitting around the barracks with the other candidates studying that thing in anticipation of my first flight.

We trained on A, B, and D model Hueys. The A models were reserved for only instructor accompanied flights because their engines were famous for hot starts.

Eventually, we went to Tactical where we lived at a simulated airfield like in 'Nam. I went to guns, most went to slick Tactical. I had a blast. It was the best part of my training. At the end of Tactical, we all came together for the fly-by on the way to graduation. Every couple of weeks I would look up and watch one of those fly-by's. It was awesome to finally be in one.

I have flown the OH-58, but liked the OH-6. I imagine it is a great trainer. However, at the risk of sounding foolish, I thought learning to fly in an TH-55 created great seat-of-the-pants pilots because it was such a wobbly little aircraft compared to the very stable, forgiving Huey. It had absolutely no conveniences like an automatic throttle and no instruments to speak of besides the very basic and came only with an AM radio. Still, once you mastered it, it was a fun aircraft to fly.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Cool post Chuck.


Wheels

[chuckn49]

Thank you. For a while I was 19 again when I was writing it. The "old guy" in my class was 28. Most of us were 18 - 22 or so. It was a great time to be an Army Aviator or so we all thought, anyway.

[tyrodtom]

I went partly thru WOFT starting in Jan. 70. Got kicked out for a flight violation in Aug.
At that time we still had the link training at Wolters, but when you got to Rucker you also had instrument training in a TH-13, Since I never made it to that phase, I don't know how instrumented that Bell 47 was, but I do know they used the hood on your head, so I assume it was fully equipped.

[chuckn49]

I'm afraid I don't remember Link trainers at Wolters, but that doesn't mean much; sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast, either. I was there some time before you, so it may be a faulty memory (highly possible) or the Army made changes.

The OH-13 was fully instrumented and we did, indeed, fly under the hood. We had ADF, VOR, ILS capability for navigation/instrument flying. However, the preferred instrument approach to landing was the GCA. We practiced GCA approaches an awful lot.

I thought I'd never master instrument flying, but after a while, I gained confidence in my skills and, more importantly, in the instruments themselves. While a "tactical ticket" was not a true "instrument rating" it sure came in handy later on.