Pilot-in-Training

For Mother's Day, Tim sent us these photographs of him in front of the T-34 Trainer that he is flying at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. He has been really busy - flying as many as four days a week. He not only flies, but has to study a lot for briefings every morning. It is for sure hard work, and he has a lot of pressure, but Tim is doing well.


The T-34C aircraft is an unpressurized two-place, tandem cockpit low-wing single-engine monoplane manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft Company (Formally Beech Aircraft), Wichita, Kansas. The aircraft is powered by a Model PT6A-25 turbo-prop engine manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft of Canada. The primary mission of the T-34C is to provide primary flight training for student pilots attached to the Chief of Naval Air Training. As a secondary mission, approximately 10% of the aircraft provide pilot proficiency and other aircraft support services to AIRLANT, AIRPAC, and NAVAIR "satellite sites" operated throughout CONUS.

Students selected to attend joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training [SUPT] with the US Navy attend aviation preflight indoctrination (API) at NAS Pensacola, Fla., for six weeks learning basic preflight topics covered in Air Force's phase I program. Following API, pilot students attend the primary and intermediate phases of flight training at NAS Corpus Christi in Texas, or NAS Whiting Field in Florida. Joint primary training takes approximately 33 weeks and includes 159 hours of ground training, 37 hours in the flight simulator, and 92 flying hours in the T-34.