OK Don: Here is what I remember about the T-34 (circa 1981):
1. It was designed with the foreknowledge that 22 year old kids were going to abuse it while they tried to become fighter pilots. They were going to pretend they were in an Phantom when in fact they were in a trainer. The T-34 had to be like a patient big brother. 2. It was a very easy aircraft to understand. The most complicated aspect was the avionics, but given that I was an E-6 avionics tech and the shop supervisor when I shipped out for OCS, that (including the IFR stuff) was the most familiar to me. I was flying ILS approaches while the instructor thought I was VFR and had great eyeballs. 3. It was an easy aircraft to fly. Left hand pushed a handle forward to go faster or pulled back to slow down. No magnetos, no throttle, no mixtures, no supercharger. Almost a real-time video game. 4. It was forgiving. A Marine Captain F-4 stick flight instructor was trying to make me do "carrier landings" and we pegged the G'meter at 4 on landing. Didn't break the plane at all -- a mandatory inspection and it was back in the air 15 minutes later. 5. In stall, it was as violent as a Cessna 150. Slight shake, nose falls thru, stick forward to pickup airspeed, and you are on your way. 6. It spun like a roller coaster -- very predictable and very responsive to control input in dead air. Off-wing instructor taught me to kick violent right rudder as the nose dropped in a stall, and the aircraft would go inverted. LOVED IT. In short, this was an aircraft designed for hotdogs upon whom the Navy had spent big bucks at Annapolis. It was designed from day one to turn Corvette and Porsche drivers into fighter pilots as efficiently as possible, without killing them in the process. It flew like a jet (so I was told by fighter pilots), it handled like a jet, it did maneuvers like an Phantom, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to drive around the sky. Would I like to own one? Yes. Could I afford to own one? No way. On 9/5/07, OK Don <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Bob Hoover would agree that smooth is the right way - remember the > video of him pouring ice tea while executing a loop in a Commander? > I don't doubt that the T-34 is a more aerobatic plane than the > Citabria - however, my chances of flying a Citabria again are FAR > greater than the chances of flying a T-34, and I'm not into the > violent maneuvers either --- however, and Pitts HAS to be a total > blast to fly! > > Don - "should have been able to afford to keep flying" > > > -- LT Don http://don.homelinux.net/~don/ Make a small loan, Make a big difference - Kiva.org _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
