Private Pilot License in 10 days!

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 16:34:58 -0700, "gatt"
wrote:

"tony roberts" wrote in message
news:nospam-428C72.22340705072004@shawnews...
Dead in eleven!

Exactly. My response was going to be "Pilot at ten, news at eleven."

-c

I wonder how many hours, on average, the military pilots who were
trained during WWII accumulated before they got their wings?

I know I know, there was a war on and pilots were desperately needed
but still.

I know that towards the end of the war, neither Germany nor Japan had
enough fuel to train like they did at the beginning of the war and
pilots were tossed into combat with extraordinarily few hours. During
the Battle of Britain, some of the British pilots were fresh out of
training and only had a few hours in type, and no training firing
their machine guns at all. Many of these pilots were killed during
their first or second sortie, if they saw combat.

wrote in message

I wonder how many hours, on average, the military pilots who were
trained during WWII accumulated before they got their wings?

Not sure about "wings" exactly, but the bomber pilots coming in by 1944 and
1945 were called "90-day wonders."

-c

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 11:46:00 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 16:34:58 -0700, "gatt"
wrote:

"tony roberts" wrote in message
news:nospam-428C72.22340705072004@shawnews...
Dead in eleven!

Exactly. My response was going to be "Pilot at ten, news at eleven."

-c

I wonder how many hours, on average, the military pilots who were
trained during WWII accumulated before they got their wings?

I've read some news articles (which I can not verify the accuracy)
that said toward the end of the war some pilots went into combat
shortly after solo.with far less time than required for the PPL in the
US now days.

Desperate time bring desperate measures.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

I know I know, there was a war on and pilots were desperately needed
but still.

I know that towards the end of the war, neither Germany nor Japan had
enough fuel to train like they did at the beginning of the war and
pilots were tossed into combat with extraordinarily few hours. During
the Battle of Britain, some of the British pilots were fresh out of
training and only had a few hours in type, and no training firing
their machine guns at all. Many of these pilots were killed during
their first or second sortie, if they saw combat.

The average United States pilot in WWII had a couple hundred hours, at
least, some more, before going overseas. Then there was sometimes
familarization (sp) flights, which also included going with an
experienced crew for one or two missions (in case of bomber pilots)
before taking over in their own plane.

The Battle of Britian pilots had it worse. Many had like 10 hours or
even less in type (spit or hurri) before entering combat!

As for the thread subject, I agree, 10 days for a PPL is too fast. It
makes more sense as a "finish up" type course, like many of the
IFR-in-a-week courses are. Thats where you already have most of your
hours, and need to polish up, take the written, etc. That sort of thing.

John