{"id":279,"date":"2012-10-07T12:54:04","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aafcollection.info\/comm\/?p=279"},"modified":"2012-10-07T12:54:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T18:54:04","slug":"pilot-training-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/2012\/10\/07\/pilot-training-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot Training Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wings\"Most class books in the collection are from different air fields and training centers.\u00a0 Pilot training involved pre-flight, primary, basic, advanced, transition and unit training.\u00a0 After graduating one course, cadets were generally re-assigned to another air field for the next phase of their training.\u00a0 Interestingly, there seem to be no class books published for transition and unit training programs.<\/p>\n

Here are the phases of pilot training as they were in 1944, adapted from The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces<\/em> (New York:\u00a0 Pocket Books, Inc., May 1944).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Preflight School:<\/strong> 10 week course. Sea and air recognition, 30 hours; code, 48 hours; physics, 24 hours; math, 20 hours; maps and charts, 18 hours; daily physical and military training.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Primary Flying School:<\/strong> 10 week course. 70 hours in 125 to 225 hp open cockpit biplanes or low-wing monoplanes; 94 hours academic work in ground school; 54 hours military training.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Basic Flying School:<\/strong> 10 week course. 70 hours in a 450 horsepower basic trainer; 94 hours in ground school; 47 hours military training. By the end of basic school trainees have learned to fly a plane competently. Further training will teach them to fly a warplane the AAF way. Before the end of basic, trainees are classified–on the basis of choice and instructors’ reports–for single-engine training (fighter pilot) or 2-engine training (bomber, transport or 2-engine fighter pilot).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Advanced Flying Training:<\/strong> 10 week course (single-engine and 2-engine). 70 hours of flying; 60 hours of ground school; 19 hours military training. Single-engine trainees fly 600 horsepower AT-6s and take a course in fixed gunnery. Two-engine trainees fly AT-24s, AT-17s, AT-9s, or AT-10s. Based on performance and choice, they are earmarked for heavy or medium bombardment, transport, troop-carrier or 2-engine fighter. At the end of advanced training the graduates, single- and 2-engine, are awarded the silver pilot’s wings of the AAF and appointed flight officers or commissioned 2nd lieutenants.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Transition Flying Training:<\/strong> Before they begin to train in units, pilots learn to fly the type of warplane they will handle in combat. For example, those marked for B-26 assignment take a 10 week transition course of which 105 hours are spent flying B-26s and the rest in ground school. B-17 and B-24 pilots also get 105 hours 4-engine flying time and additional ground school training in a 10 week post-graduate transition course. Fighter pilots get a 5 week transition course; single-engine pilots fly 10 hours in P-40s; P-38 pilots take 10 hours in P-322s (modified P-38s). Gunnery is a part of fighter transition training. At the conclusion of transition training, pilots report to unit training groups where they are welded into fighting teams.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most class books in the collection are from different air fields and training centers.\u00a0 Pilot training involved pre-flight, primary, basic, advanced, transition and unit training.\u00a0 After graduating one course, cadets were generally re-assigned to another air field for the next phase of their training.\u00a0 Interestingly, there seem to be no class books published for transition … Continue reading “Pilot Training Requirements”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,47,44,46,48,45],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-advanced-flight","tag-basic-flight","tag-pilot","tag-preflight","tag-primary-flight","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}