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Navy Flight Training in 1941

B

bobhegf

Charter Member
I was trying to find some info on Navy flight Training during 1941. I have yet to find any detailed info about Navy Flight Training during this time period. I need as mush detailed info as I can get for this time period. If you have any info please post ,thanks.
 
I plan to redo My Training Missions but this time using the correct training ac used during 1941. I, am going to add where and when I can URLs to training films found on the net. This is only part of a much larger project that I had been working on and almost finished when I lost my hard drive and lost everything. The project carries the player through flight training, Battle Of The Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, a stint as an instructer at NAS Norfolk VA and then on to the Enterprise with I think with VF10. The Mission at Midway was the one flown by the reserve part of fighter unit VMF221 at Midway. All the missions are fighter missions flown during the war.
 
Sander it sure would help if we could configure an LSO on Land. I have found the correct Pattern for WWII carrier brakes and landings as well as the correct parking on the carrier deck during landings as well as the respot. I am going to need some help with static AI AC that are very light on the frame rates.The biggest problem I am having are the aircraft used for training during 1941 as well as the number of hours flown during each part of the training. I do know that the J3 Cub , SNJ, and the Kingfisher on wheels were used during this time along with the Seagull on wheels. The seagull on wheels was used at some point for carrier deck quals and the number of training hours was cut.
 
Bob: You might try and find "Wings of Gold," a book I read some years ago. It had a detailed description of training etc.

Perhaps the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola FL whould also be able to direct you to some other sources.

Good Luck.
 
Bob

My father was a WWII Navy primary flight instructor. I have his training syllabus from February 1943 complete with his notes. According to the preamble, Navy flight training was overhauled at that time to improve its effectiveness. It's a loose leaf binder along with a number of training pamphlets that were handed out to students when that particular subject area was to be covered. I haven't counted but it's probably about 100 double sided typed pages plus all of the pamphlets.

Bear in mind, this is the primary syllabus, not advanced or OTU.

Pilots returning from fleet deployment in 1940 / 41 could have wound up being primary instructors, but as far as I know, not after the war started. Combat experience wasn't wasted there, they would go to OTU or become cadre for newly forming squadrons. Primary instructors were trained as instructors under a special program (usually somewhat older civilian pilots who joined the Navy Reserves) or held back from graduating pilot classes.
 
The biggest problem I am having at this point is the training and type of aircraft used during the time period between Feb. To Nov. 1941. It seems that it is a mixed bag and not very well organized. Any info for that time period would be of great help, Thanks.
 
Like I was stating before. Look up the USS Wolverine (IX-64). They flew almost every aircraft that the Navy had at the time. They would use a navalized version of the Texan when there was little to no wind for landings.

only issue is the Wolverine and her sister ship were not used in 1941. so this might not help.
 
In 1941 it was starting to become a real problem because of the number of pilots in reserve that the fleet needed as well as the number of up to date aircraft. Because of the shortage of new aircraft types the Navy was still using old biplanes to train pilots. Most of the time they used the seagull on wheels as well as the older dive bombers to carrier qualify pilots that would be flying from a carrier. The carriers used the most when in port were the Ranger and Long Island. The aircraft used the most were the King Fisher on Wheels for navigation and formation flying and the Seagull on wheels along with the pre war biplane dive bombers for carrier quals. The problem was in the Pacific Theater of Operations because up to date new aircraft were in short supply, you had to be carrier qualified in the aircraft type you would be flying in combat in order to be an active member of a carrier squadron.


The big problem I am having is the flight training time line. The program was going through a lot of changes such as going from a 13 month training program for all pilots to a 7 month training program for carrier pilots. Patrol pilots still had to go through 13 months of training. Most all the carrier training was done at NAS Norfolk VA until it was moved to NAS Glenview ILL in 1943. This is what I have found out up to this point. The Thing is We do not have a good CFS2 Kingfisher on wheels nor do we have a Seagull on wheels. It would be nice to have this two types set up this way along with an N3N on wheels with a good load factor and low poly count for the AI. I have pictures of all this ac if someone is interested.
 
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