What I did on my Spring trip

[Rocky Raab]

Last week, I traveled to Columbus, Mississippi. Whyinhell would I go there?

Well, I used to be an instructor pilot at Columbus AFB, and on Monday, they had the final student flight of the T-37 "Tweet" jet I flew. Called the 6,000-pound dog whistle, or the Flying Tadpole, the little Cessna was tens of thousands of student pilots' first jet - mine included. It was in active service for 50 years at every USAF pilot training base.

This was the taxi-out of the final flight...
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/RockyRaab/Columbus-2008169.jpg

Here's the traditional firetruck salute at the end...
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/RockyRaab/Columbus-2008201.jpg

And here's the patch that Warner Brothers generously designed for the flight...
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/RockyRaab/Columbus-2008230.jpg

The last remaining Tweets will be flown to the boneyard and cut up for scrap. The beer can you hoist in the near future may be part of this very airplane.

Sad.

[BILLY D.]

Neat Bird Rocky.

At our FIS'S that I was involved in our Trainers were T-33's.

Man, them Birds had some air miles on them.

Best wishes, Bill

[Aim to maim]

Good post. I hope it was a fine trip down memory lane for you. Speaking of memories, T-37's from nearby Laughlin AFB were my constant overhead companions during my Border Patrol years 1978-1983. The "tweet-dog whistle" nickname was apt.

Could you share some info with us about their replacement A/C?

Thanks for your service at Columbus AFB and in less friendly environments elsewhere.

[skeet]

I always wanted some time in a jet. Never got any stick time. Got a ride in the back seat of an F-4. Oh man!! Just like Will Smith's character in Independance day..I was thinkin...I gotta have one of these! Thanks for sharing Rocky!

[fishdoggydog]

I would have thought a lot of rich pilots with jet wants would pay more than scrap price for one of those. A local dentist has a russian jet he does fly overs with on special days here.

[Rocky Raab]

In its infinite wisdom, the US gummint does not sell operable aircraft of any type to any civilian.

The only source is to find a foreign gummint that bought them, and then buy from them. There are several other countries that have or are planning to buy a few of the surplus T-37s. But we'd have to wait until they wore them out before they sell those - so the poor Tweets would be pretty hammered by then.

Besides, one of the reasons they are being retired is that they are gas hogs. I doubt many people could afford to fly them when they burn 300 gallons an hour - at $5+ a gallon.

[Rocky Raab]

Here's the Tweet's replacement, the T-6 Texan II. Yup, a turbo prop. Never thought I'd see a new prop plan again, but here it is. Oh, the IPs don't like it. Tandem seating is fine in an advanced trainer, but it's awful in a primary trainer. Plus there are some serious design problems with it. In its original form (I’m told it comes from a Swiss Pilatus design) it was great, but the US version uses an engine that's was never intended for frequent and large throttle movements, nor high-G use. Worst of all, to date two of of six ejection seats has failed to fire!

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/RockyRaab/Columbus-2008158.jpg

[skeet]

Back when I was workin in the Fire dept on the Airport there was a few civilian planes around. Some old warbirds were there. One guy had an old P40 and another had a P-51. They always needed maintenance Or they looked that way..but there was nothing that sounded like them. Those big ol engines just had a sound to them. When I first started work there the Ol Connies were still being used. Neat old airplanes. Down in Greybull Wy there are a bunch of old military stuff. Some I have flown(like the flying boxcar) and some I would like to. They even have a PBY down there. Those things are getting old now. But they were workhorses in their day. Some of the Boxcars even have JATO on them. Guess i just be gettin old. I'm probably gonna make it ol codgerism this year if I'm lucky:rolleyes: :D

[BILLY D.]

skeet

You would have appreciated the AC-119's we had in 'nam. They added 2 J-85's out board. Still had the standard 3350's

More than doubled the gross weight. Take off speed 160k, cruising speed 180k, landing speed 160k. The glide path of an anvil. :eek: :eek:

But I'll say one thing for the old girl, in 192 missions I never had to walk back home once. We had one AC #883 that had 15 feet of the leading edge of the wing shot off by AAA and flew from the Plain De Jars back to Nakhon Phanom in Thailand.

I loved those birds.

Best wishes, Bill

[skeet]

That Boxcar was a true anvil. It was the nastiest plane I ever flew. Didn't have too many hours in them. and never actually flew one in VN. Did my training here in the states and never got to pilot one over there. Did fly on one that was set up as a gun ship. Had 4 or 5 gatling guns on it...and a lot of bullets. Long time ago and many miles away for sure. Most of what I was in was the Helio Courier STOL plane Also flew a Dornier a few times. We went into jungle strips with all kinds of stuff. The Courier would land on a dime and give ya change. Carried quite a bit too. Wouldn't take too much battle damage though...course it wasn't really a military aircraft. Even after all this time I remember some of those nasty places we had to land. Young and crazy is what I was. Hell all of us were crazy