T-6 Paint Schemes

[Randy Haskin]

How close do you want to get???

They must be making "close" a lot further away than they used to!

[Ollie]

About our Harvard, we'll finish her transformation this spring, we'll paint repaint a few parts to make her look even more WW2, but it would be best to get her all yellow with maple leaf roundels...

We don't have the time to do it, so me and a friend just have to make up for it!

In our case, it went from this :



To this :




Next phase is this spring...

[Stoney]

Most units had a T-6 assigned to them and many were painted in the units colors

[HarvardIV]

Really Stoney:

Bill Larkins could only find a picture of one in USAAF service in olive drab. I wonder if any went to the Philippines or the SWPA in WW2? Anyway, wondering also if any went to the RAAF in, or if they only used Wirraways. Anyway, it was my grandpa who said late in WW2 they painted them yellow. Sorry about all the questions.


Chris

[Jeffrey]

I believe that the first of the wirraway serials, A20-1 was a NA-16 and the second, A20-2, was a NA-33 but as for using T-6, not that I have ever heard of except in units where there were aussies flying in american units or undergoing training overseas where they utilised them. I think a couple of them might have been brought to australia as squadron hacks with american units but I only have an unsubstantiated photo as evidence of that.

[T J Johansen]

Speaking of yellow Texans, here's a photo of Ray Gentile's T-6G from Kansas City. Ray is a fellow supporter of the Heart of America CAF wing, and his T-6 is a real beauty.

I love flying the T-6, as it's a pilot's machine. It's not the fastest, or the most nimble, but it scores a 10 out of 10 in the fun department.

I remember some 10-12 ago being in touch with a T-6 driver from the Kansas City area (Overland Park) by the name of Phil Harris. Think he was a lawyer. Does that name ring any bells?

T J

[srpatterson]

You like flying the six more than a Sea Fury or Mustang?

These are the questions that get you in trouble every time. I don't want to say that flying the T-6 is easier than a Sea Fury or Mustang, because we all know people who have been bitten in the ass by the Texan (usually when you least expect it). But, just as a cub is relaxing to fly on a warm summer day with the door open, there's nothing better than flying the T-6 with the canopy open while making lots of noise.

All warbirds are fun, they just tend to push different buttons. I've only ever found one that I truly didn't like, and it was French (Nord 3202).

TJ, I don't know Phil Harris.

[HarvardIV]

Mr. Patterson:

Not to go too far off on a tangent, but how does a T-6 bite? I've heard they bite on landing if you don't pay attention, in low level aerobatics, and stall/spin situations.ie abrupt pull ups, etc.

Chris

[srpatterson]

First, please call me Steve...

The classic line is that everyone should have 10 hours in a… (insert favorite piston engine fighter here, today we’ll use a Bearcat)…”everyone should have 10 hours in a Bearcat before being allowed to fly the T-6”. You also hear, “start on the Bearcat, transition to the Mustang, then you’ll be ready for the T-6”. And you know what, there’s some truth to it.

I like to think of the T-6 as the FlightSafety simulator of the 1940s. I’ve never met anyone who thought a simulator flew as well as the real airplane. Know why? They’re not supposed to. Sims are supposed to be somewhat quirky and skittish, so that when you get in the actual airplane everything comes a little easier and a little smoother.

When I first started flying the Texan (in preparation for flying the Sea Fury) I would call my instructor in Texas on the phone and say “I hate flying this thing, it’s a pig.”, to which he would respond, “You’re supposed to hate it. It doesn’t have enough power, the controls are mushy and when on the runway it wants to go every direction except straight. Keep flying and call me in a few weeks”.

Well, he was right. The more I flew the T-6 the more I came to enjoy it. I had originally purchased the Texan just to build time to fly the Hawker, with the intention that I would sell it after a year. Well, it isn’t for sale.

So, why the bad wrap? Well, it boils down to a couple of items that make the T-6 an excellent trainer and that also command a pilot’s respect. The first is ground handling. Just get used to the fact that she’s going to swerve, and be ready for it. One big piece of advice is not to pick the tail up early on takeoff. Pick the tail “green” and she will really take you for a ride. Personally, I like to wheel land the Texan, but she also 3 points nicely.

The next area of attention in the T-6 is the stall, especially the accelerated stall. I had been doing a lot of formation and aerobatic flying in the L-39 (and the T-28 before that), so I thought that I was ready for the Texan. Only thing was, the T-6 was designed in the 1930s, as opposed to those other more modern military trainers I was familiar with. Anyway, we went up on that first flight and did a stall series. Lots of rudder needed to keep a wing from dropping, but not too bad. Power on, normal recovery. My instructor said, “now let’s do some accelerated stalls”. OK, no problem.

In the L-39 an accelerated stall goes something like this: 60 degree bank at say 250 knots, begin pulling…2G…3G…you start to feel the mice on the controls “tap tap tap”…pull harder, here come the horses…”thump thump thump”…harder still, and you get the elephants…”bang bang”…then bang, and the nose suddenly stops tracking in the turn. Let off the back pressure and she’ll just start tracking around the turn again. So, with this experience base I began my first accelerated stall in the T-6 (at altitude of course, with a qualified instructor). Up in the bank…level turn…ball centered…pulling harder

BANG

This was followed soon after by “Holy Sh*t!!!” from yours truly. The T-6 has departed, in a most spectacular flick roll to the outside. I’m now on my back, executing a recovery before we enter a spin. Of course the sound of laughter coming from the backseat is now ringing in my ears. “OK, let’s do that again” I say over the intercom. I’m now thinking to myself that I must have had some slip on for it to have gone over like that. Nope. Second time was just like the first. When this thing is tired of flying she just up and quits. I now begin to understand why people die in the T-6 every year. Get slow in the pattern…overshoot final…bank her up on a wing and pull and…BANG.

There’s an excellent article by Budd Davisson on flying the T-6 at

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepT-6.html

[Scott Rose]

Mr. Patterson,

I have your AT-6F listed as [url=http://www.warbirdregistry.org/texanregistry/texan-4481656.html"]this one[/url] as does the FAA, is this the correct one?

Also, would it be possible to use on of these pictures for the registry?

Thanks,

[srpatterson]

That's her, Scott. Help yourself to any photos you like.

I agree with Setter, in that once I post a photo on the internet it's in the public domain. This is a luxury I can afford, as I definately qualify as an "amateur photographer".

Steve

[Scott Rose]

Thanks!

[Randy Haskin]

Steve -

Very interesting regarding the relationship between the handling qualities of the T-6 compared to the actual fighters of the day.

The relationship between the T-38 and the A-10, F-15, and F-16 is exactly the same: the T-38 is much harder to horse around the sky and is much less forgiving of ham-fistedness.

When I was a student pilot, this fact puzzled me to no end..."why the heck would the AF leadership have picked such a tough airplane to train people in?!"

Now I get it!! The Talon is, much as I expect the Texan was, the "man/boy separator". It prepared students to go fly wild jet-powered behemoths like the Thud, Hun, and Rhino, by being difficult to fly and thereby making those big, bad, fighters a little easier by comparison.

I guess the USAF actually does know a thing or two about picking airplanes to train pilots! To quote my good friend Neil Peart, "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more that things change, the more they stay the same."

[jgrifft6]

I absolutely agree with Mr. Patterson on the T-6 in general and on the accelerated stalls as I had a very similar 'holy crap' experience as I was doing cross controlled stalls with our T-6D while getting checked out. The plane snapped with zero warning and immediately went on its back. I wound up holding what I had and the plane simply continued going around until the blue side was up and I executed a recovery but dow low in the pattern, it could've been deadly. Otherwise, the airplane is very nice to fly and the trick to landing it is to never ever get complacent. The plane has a sense for anything less than full effort on landing. I've had it in 20+ knot direct crosswinds during training and it has plenty of controls as long as you keep it going mostly straight and watch how you put the tail down on wheel landings. It doesn't want to swerve as bad as other airplanes I've flown, but when it does... it much more serious about it and after a few degrees from runway heading, theres nothing you can do to stop it. Otherwise, when people ask what I prefer flying, the answer is always the T-6 for the overall experience mostly because the plane is a challenge.
Jason Griffin

[HarvardIV]

It sounds like the most critical thing is to keep the ball centered, and watch your airspeed in the pattern.