Chapter 11 Primary Flight Training Continues

In Chickasha we received our training at a civilian owned and operated flight school, The Wilson and Bonfils Flight School. Classes were also taught and flight checks given by a military staff.

Close order drill, calisthenics and obstacle courses continued in Primary school as did the classes in airplane recognition, meteorology, and ground school. The Army method of learning was memorization. We were expected to be able to memorize everything. It was a good discipline and in times of stress, it stood you well.
Our accommodations at W&B were known as the “Country Club” because everything was civilian in the mess hall from food to dishes and in the barracks from the beds and mattresses to the linens. Everything outside the mess hall and the barracks was strictly military.

In the afternoons our flight training continued. I was lucky to have done my solo a little earlier than most of the cadets. I was able to spend more time shooting landings and practicing the basics and acrobatics. When he rode with me after my solo, the instructor taught me forced landings. He’d cut the throttle and force me to find a place to land. Luckily there were a lot of fields in Oklahoma. Just about the time the wheels were going to touch the ground, he would take over and climb to a safe altitude, then hand it back and tell me to practice something else. Soon he’d cut the throttle again and I’d be forced to land again. Later, I spent a lot of time practicing these forced landings myself. Little did I know all that practice would eventually save my life and the life of 6 other crew members somewhere over France.

There were flight checks at the end of each phase of flying lessons. There was nothing the “checkers” liked better than washing out the unfit pilots. If you didn’t make the grade, or even if they just didn’t like you, you could be weeded out. You got two chances. If you didn’t pass the first test you got one more by a different checker. He knew it was your second of course, and if you failed his check you were reassigned to navigator or bombardier school. Luckily, I never had to take a second flight check.

Winter in Oklahoma was pretty cold and many days we woke to snow deep enough to entertain us guys by making snowmen or blow off some steam by having a few snowball fights. Mostly we had 10 short weeks to learn how to fly and between that and military drills and classes there wasn’t a lot of free time.

When our ten weeks was up Class 43E had a Graduation ceremony. Those that made it through were sent on to Basic Flight Training. Our class was going to Enid Army Flying School in Enid, Oklahoma