Sunday, February 08, 2015

Cessna T-37 Single Spin Recovery Bold Face





For those who might have forgotten, I think it goes like this:

Throttles – Idle

Rudder and Ailerons – Neutral

Stick – Abruptly full aft and hold

Rudder – Abruptly apply full rudder opposite spin direction (opposite turn needle) and hold

Stick – Abruptly full forward one turn after applying rudder

Controls – Neutral after spinning stops and recover from dive

(43 words as I remember)

And if that doesn't work there was always this:

Handles - Raise

Triggers - Squeeze

The above bold face items were two of the  memory items required in the Air Force's undergraduate pilot training program while in the T-37 phase of instruction. The first is the spin recovery, and the second is the ejection sequence.

The course ran for about a year and successful completion would result in the award of silver wings and the aeronautical rating of pilot.

Bold face memory items were required to be committed to memory and recalled verbatim. Every morning, a briefing was conducted to go over items pertaining to the day's flying. One of the segments of the briefing was known as the "stand up".

A designated instructor would present an emergency scenario and then call upon a student to stand and verbally walk though all the steps required to resolve the emergency. Should the event require the use of a memory item, the student was expected to recite the bold faced item perfectly as a first step. Incorrect recitation would be followed by a command of "sit down".

This meant that the student was grounded for the day. This morning dog and pony show probably induced more stress in the students than would an actual emergency in the aircraft, and came to be widely hated by all.


7 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:27 PM

    Ha, Ha, fortunately there is a step before HANDLES - RAISE, and I am alive to share it. If you did not do the stick steps abruptly, and end up inverted, the next step is:
    REPEAT.
    Worked the second time with a lot more adrenaline in my system.

    I am looking for video of the T-37 from the cockpit in flight, preferably during an aileron roll, to publicize a book. Do you have a source? Love your photo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Anne,

    Yes...wash, rinse, REPEAT! Never went inverted myself but knew folks who did. Here's a Tweet vid I found on Youtube. It's of a formation flight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFtodDpU1Bo&index=11&list=PL7f3tLASfiQpr8o3iyAPw_3UsZZZ40OaX

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  4. Captain, they changed the Bolface over the years; when I flew the last Tweet sortie (Sheppard AFB July 2009), the ejection boldface was:

    HANDGRIPS - RAISE
    TRIGGERS - SQUEEZE

    They had even removed the spin boldface and made it merely a "procedure."

    Martin, did you ever get your video?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Captain, they changed the Bolface over the years; when I flew the last Tweet sortie (Sheppard AFB July 2009), the ejection boldface was:

    HANDGRIPS - RAISE
    TRIGGERS - SQUEEZE

    They had even removed the spin boldface and made it merely a "procedure."

    Martin, did you ever get your video?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sir,

    Posting such sensitive Top Secret military aircraft information can help our enemies and result in imprisonment. Unless of course you bypass government encrypted software and use your own homebrew router. In that case, carry on old boy.

    President Cankles

    ReplyDelete
  7. You're probably correct that it was "handgrips". It was a long time ago and memories fade...

    ReplyDelete

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