Civilian Training in the T-41

Hardly as powerful as the car he then drove, the T-41 was not the exciting introduction expected. If you have seen the 1960s Air Force recruiting film, The Year of 53 Weeks, this story will sound quite familiar. Below are both my Dad’s written words setting this story to paper in August 2020 and a video of our discussion about this time period.

IN HIS WORDS:

The first airplane I attempted to fly was the Cessna T-41, a basic, single engine prop plane. It had less horsepower than my car. I had a civilian instructor, who didn’t seem to much like his job and the quality of instruction reflected that fact. There didn’t seem to be set procedures to do any maneuver; it was just do this, do that. Approaching my 30 hour limit, I hadn’t soloed and I went for a “final elimination” ride. The evaluator was a crusty old major, who ran the T-41 program. We took off, did a touch-and-go landing, then he told me to make the next one full-stop. I figured my flying days were over. He had me pull over on the taxiway, he said to take off and do a couple of landings. They probably weren’t pretty, but they were safe and improved. I passed the final elimination … on to the jets.