A Citizen Soldier in the Air - a B-24 Liberator pilot's story.

Click to go to the home page of MiGMan's Flight Sim Museum - www.migman.com

A Citizen Soldier in the Air.

Civilian Training (Taylorcraft)

Charlie didn’t get a chance to fly again for about 11 years, when he was studying psychology in college.

"In spring of 1941 I was a senior at the University of New Hampshire, and some of my buddies and I heard about the Army’s Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). We decided to give it a try."

In 1941, the U.S. was not yet at war, but it seemed to be coming, and programs were in place to start training more pilots. The Army paid for the lessons, which were given by civilian flying schools in regular civilian trainers.

"All we had to pay was $10 for a flight surgeon’s physical exam - the Army paid the rest." The Army also set the very rigid curriculum, in a combination syllabus and log book that Charlie still has. It shows that he took his first flight on March 1, 1941, and soloed March 28, after just 9 flying hours.

Excerpt from Charles H. Cook's flying log on March 28th 1941

The Taylor Cub

"It was a little Taylorcraft, a tail dragger. The flight school was nothing more than a farmer’s field - it sure wasn’t flat."

Winter flying presented additional challenges. "We’d put skis on the wheels, but to take off, you’d have to rock the wings left and right to keep the skis from sticking to the snow." After the specified forty hours, plus a number of ground school classes taught by UNH professors, Charlie took his test flight and received his private pilot’s license on June 3, 1941.

READ ON

Aircraft in Action