WWII Pilot Training Flight Times

[Stearman75972]

What was the average number of hours/days it took a WWII pilot in each stage of there flight training? How many hours in the PT, BT & AT series aircraft. What was the average hours for pilots of flight training in fighters, single engine, & multi engine. How many hours for the bomber and transport pilots?

[bipe215]

My Dad's log shows about 46 hrs Stearman, 71 hrs BT-13, 82 hrs T-6,
10 hrs P-40. He then waited for an assignment. Had his heart set on P-47's. Talked his way out of 3 or 4 he didn't want, then got sent to McDill for B-17 training. The first time he ever touched the controls of a multi-engine ship was in tight formation.
I think what you got assigned depended alot on what was happening at the time. When he came up for assignment, we were losing bombers at an alarming rate. Although Dad was trained as a fighter pilot, he came to love the B-17. He served with the 483rd at Sterparone.

PS. I forgot, he had about 135 hrs in the B-17 when they picked up a new ship at Hunter Field and flew the northern route to North Africa.

Steve G

[Chuck Gardner]

Official Guide to the Army Air Forces :

Preflight School -- 10 weeks:
18 hours, maps and charts
48 hours, code
30 hours, sea and air recognition
24 hours, physics
20 hours, math
Daily physical and military training
Primary Flying School -- 10 weeks
94 hours, ground school
70 hours, 125 to 225hp biplane or low-wing monoplane flight training
54 hours, military training

Basic Flying School -- 10 weeks
94 hours, ground school
70 hours, 450hp basic trainer flight time
47 hours, military training

Advanced Flight school -- 10 weeks
60 hours, ground school
19 hours, military training
70 hours, flight Single engine AT-6 or Twin Engine AT-24, AT-17, AT-9, AT-10
Course of Fixed Gunnery

Cadets training on twin engine were chosen for Heavy or Medium Bombardment, Transport, Troop Carrier, or 2-engine Fighters based on performance.
At the end of Advanced Training, cadets were awarded their wings and appointed either Flight Officer or Commissioned 2nd Lt.

Four Engine Transition Training --- 125 hours

Combat Crew Training --- 90 days

[John Dupre]

In regards to bipe215's comments. I once knew an ex B-17 pilot who also trained as a fighter pilot on Mustangs. There was some kind of directive or program that sought to establish whether it was easier to transition a fighter pilot to bombers or a bomber pilot to fighters. Two men were chosen from his squadron, one named Wing and the other Zimmerman. Wing did take advantage of his B-17 training to buzz his home town in PA on the way overseas and did such a thorough job it was still being talked about years later.

[Oscar Duck]

Steve P. my late father-in-law took pilot training on PT-22's at King Flying Services in Ca. half-way through that phase he and about half his class were terminated and sent to gunnery school [mid-1943]. They were starting to lose a bunch of crews then.

He served as a flight engineer/top turret gunner on B-17's at Sterapone also with the 483rd Bomb Group. [815th BS] arriving in Italy in Mar'44..

[Second Air Force]

Steve P. my late father-in-law took pilot training on PT-22's at King Flying Services in Ca. half-way through that phase he and about half his class were terminated and sent to gunnery school [mid-1943]. They were starting to lose a bunch of crews then.

He served as a flight engineer/top turret gunner on B-17's at Sterapone also with the 483rd Bomb Group. [815th BS] arriving in Italy in Mar'44..

That is a common occurrence during certain phases of the War. Many pilot cadets were washed out or surplused for what would normally be very minor discrepancies in order to send the "bodies" to where there were vacancies. Sometimes it was bombardier, navigator, or gunnery school depending on where the manpower shortages were at the time. In addition, the B-29 flight engineer schools took a good number of pilot-trainees during the early phase of the program.

I've been working on the later phases of training primarily, but there was a lot of swapping of pilot trainees from single to multi (and from multi to single when necessary) for much the same reason. Pilots were sent to where the slots were, and sometimes it was sink-or-swim, especially with co-pilots in the bombers.

Scott

[bipe215]

Steve P. my late father-in-law took pilot training on PT-22's at King Flying Services in Ca. half-way through that phase he and about half his class were terminated and sent to gunnery school [mid-1943]. They were starting to lose a bunch of crews then.

He served as a flight engineer/top turret gunner on B-17's at Sterapone also with the 483rd Bomb Group. [815th BS] arriving in Italy in Mar'44..

Oscar,
I remember that from an earlier thread. My Dad was in the 816th.

Steve G