Why I am Proud to be an American Pilot
By: Norm Goyer
My first surplus aircraft was a $450 Ryan PT-22. it was not a very good airplane.
Our nations birthday was celebrated a few days ago on July 4, 2010, my birthday is July 11. For many years are family has celebrated Father’s Day, July 4 and July 11 as a single holiday with a huge family gathering, barbeques and often a trip to the airport to celebrate our love of aviation. As time caught up with many of us, we are no longer able to do that, our family is scattered from Massachusetts to Hawaii with other waypoints in Texas, Nevada, Oregon and California. But one thing they cannot take away from me are my memories of raising a flying family. And fly we did. I soloed in a J-3 Cub with 6.2 hours total time. Daughter Elise started her flying lessons at 16 years old in a Piper Cherokee. Roger soloed in a Cessna 152, Peter soloed in a Cub at 16, that he will admit to. He went on to an ATP, A & P and IA. Robert soloed in a Piper Warrior and went on to become the Senior Editor at Flying Magazine. My late wife Tina passed her Private Pilot written in addition to running our four fixed base operations. She was a whiz on the Unicom and kept harmony with our large staff of instructors, mechanics and aircraft sales personnel. As our nation celebrates I thought that I would travel back through time and remember some of the American military aircraft I had the privilege of flying.
The Fairchild PT-19, PT-23 and PT-26 were great fun to fly. I owned one of each of these mostly wood primary trainers. One of the easiest planes to fly, ever.
During my training I flew in Navy N2S (PT-17), SNV (BT-13) and SNJ (T-6). But it was the surplus aircraft that abounded post war that really were fun and an education to fly. My first purchased aircraft was a Ryan PT-22, I was happy to have survived that little aircraft, not the pride of the training fleet, that’s for sure. I paid $450 for it and sold it for $300 and glad to get it. Next I picked up a Fairchild PT-26. That is a Fairchild PT-19 with a 200 hp Ranger engine and a winter hatch. Nice airplane and it was in this that I gave Tina a ride on our first date. I always took my dates for an airplane ride, if they complained there was not a second date. Obviously Tina loved flying and we had a great life of 62 years together. I belonged to a small club and we had a BT-13, 2 SNJs, a B-25 and an FM-2 Wildcat. The SNJs were mine. At the time I belonged to the CAP as a search pilot. I flew many missions with their Stinson L-5, Aeronca L-16 and Piper L-4 Cub. We also had two military Schweitzer all wood two-place training gliders, great fun to fly as long as the termites continued to hold hands.
My all time favorite surplus aircraft is the outstanding North American SNJ-6 (Texan). This aircraft was so highly regarded that the new military trainer, the Texan II, was named in its honor.
For almost ten years I was the New England aviation stringer for ABC and CBS News. In this capacity I managed to get my hands on the controls of a Lockheed T-33, Convair T-38, C-47 Dakota, Boeing B-52 and yes even a B-36 Peacemaker. I also flew in a Cessna L-126 which I liked so well, I tracked down a civilian version, the Cessna 195 and restored it, one of my all time favorite aircraft. I eventually ended up in Southern California and was operating four FBOs, Apple Valley, Barstow-Daggett, 29 Palms and Needles. During this time span I owned two more SNJ-6s, a PT-23, (PT-19 with a Continental radial engine), and had control of a BT-8, now in the Air Force Museum, a B-25, a Hollywood Zero, Val and Kate, all modified BT-13s and AT-6s. These were all owned by Challenge Publications. In our main hangar we had an Douglas A-26 used by North American for instrument testing. It was an On-Mark conversion. At times I felt like a pilot in a time warp. I realized that after flying some of America’s most famous aircraft it was a bit of step down into a Cessna 150. These wild flying times will never occur again, aviation has changed, pilots have changed and as we speak, the year 2010 will be considered by many to be the kick off of yet another sweeping aviation change, new fuels, new avionics, new propulsion systems and new aircraft, all very similar in looks, performance and price. I guess my fellow greatest generation pilots are very thankful to have been born when the average pilot could own and fly some of the best aircraft in the world for pennies on the dollar. Happy Birthday to America and yes to me, an old bold pilot. NG
One of the first jet trainers was the Lockheed T-33 which saw acceptance by air forces all over the world.
I even managed to go along on a nine hour training flight in a B-52, shown here carrying an X-15 rocket test vehicle.