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A2ASIMULATIONS T-6 TEXAN ACCU-SIM T-6 TEXAN CONTENTS 6 THE NORTH AMERICAN T-6 50 DEVELOPER’S NOTES 52 FEATURES 54 QUICKSTART GUIDE 56 ACCU-SIM AND THE T-6 TEXAN 60 ACCU-SIM AND THE COMBUSTION ENGINE 66 PROPELLERS 70 THE T-6 TEXAN 78 AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT 80 AUTOMATIC FLIGHT SYSTEM 82 CHECKLISTS 90 EMERGENCIES 4 94 ALL WEATHER OPERATION 100 OPERATION LIMITATIONS 104 FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS 108 SYSTEMS 112 DATA CHARTS 120 HANDLING, SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE 126 CREDITS 5 THE NORTH AMERICAN T-6 BY MITCHELL GLICKSMAN © 2016 ustang! Thunderbolt! Hellcat! Corsair! PRIMARY FLIGHT TRAINING Spitfire! Hurricane! These and many Since the beginning of military aviation, of necessity, all of the other great Allied fighter air- major air forces have had a Primary flight school. Between craft of World War Two are highly 1926 and 1938 all United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)1 familiar to a great many people and to Primary Flight Training was given at the Air Corps Training everyone interested in aviation his- Center, first at Duncan Field, an annex of Kelley Field near M tory. All of these aeroplanes and the San Antonio, Texas and later at Randolph Field near Universal valiant pilots who flew them did their very crucial part to City, Texas. In time, other training centres arose in south- ensure the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the Empire ern Texas, an area chosen for such because the topography of Japan. is an enormous, flat plain which enjoys year-round excellent However, what all of these pilots who flew these aero- flying weather. With virtually all USAAC flight training being planes, all of the celebrated aces and all of those who flew held at these locations right through World War Two (WWII) with them have in common is one aeroplane, one which is it is no wonder that the coming AT-6 trainer aircraft was not nearly as well-known or popularly celebrated — the dubbed “Texan”2. The USN/USMC Flight Training Centre was North American (NAA) T-6, or AT-6 as it was called in the at Pensacola, Florida. U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF), SNJ in the U.S. Navy (USN) and As the number of flight cadets grew exponentially from U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and “Harvard” in the Royal Air the middle 1930s to 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 Force (RAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Virtually was passed authorizing and funding a trial program for what every one of the pilots who flew against the Nazi and Imperial would become the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). Japanese air forces, learned the art and craft of combat flying On 27 December 1938, President Roosevelt announced the and honed their aeronautic skills to a diamond- sharp tip in program which was to provide pilot training for 20,000 col- the AT-6 before they were given leave to go into harm’s way lege students a year. All Primary Flight Training in the U.S. in Mustangs, Hellcats and Spitfires. was thereby transferred to Army contracted civilian flight Compared to those mighty and oft-heralded fighter air- schools following a strict Army curriculum and using U.S. craft, the relatively obscure AT-6/SNJ is the common bond Army owned aircraft. It was here that the venerable Piper that ties all of these pilots together and which enabled them “Cub” was often the aircraft of choice for Primary Training. to “go forth and vanquish the foe” so successfully. Many Other aircraft used for Primary Training were: Consolidated thousands of young, eager pilots owe their very survival in PT-1 “Trusty”, Stearman PT-13D “Kaydet”, Ryan YPT-16, the mad swirl of aerial combat and the rest of their lives Fairchild PT-19/26 “Cornell” and Ryan PT-22 “Recruit”. thereafter to the lessons they learned whilst in the cockpit Using civilian flight schools for Primary Training freed of an AT-6, so successfully and profoundly did this humble up the USAAC and USN/USMC training centres for Basic aeroplane perform its role and do its duty. flight training. Eventually a Pre-Flight stage was added to weed out those cadets who were deemed unfit to continue MILITARY FLIGHT TRAINING IN THE MIDDLE 1930s to Primary Flight School. During Pre-Flight screening, pro- As it is the North American T-6 G that we are mostly con- spective cadets took rigourous classes in mathematics, the cerned with herein, the following will primarily discuss U.S. hard sciences (primarily chemistry and physics) as well as and British flight training in the late ‘30s and during World aerodynamics, aeronautics and three-dimensional geometry War II. To state the obvious, military flight training was then at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, Texas; at Maxwell and still is intended to gradually bring the completely unini- Field, Alabama, at the Santa Ana Army Air Base, California tiated new cadet to the point where he is competent to fly or at Pensacola for USN/USMC cadets. As may well be imag- first- line combat aircraft (in the times discussed herein, ined, this programme weeded out a great number of would- except in the Soviet Union, women were excluded from mili- be cadets. tary flight training). A similar flight training curriculum was After the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the followed in virtually all of the major air forces at that time United States began to build up its armed services as most which was accomplished in three distinct steps, Primary, practical-minded officials saw that it was very likely that the then Basic training, followed by a short period of Transitional U.S. would soon become involved therein. In 1940, to create or Operational training in aircraft in service. a greater number of pilots ready to serve, two more Air Corps 6 A2ASIMULATIONS ::: ACCU-SIM T-6 TEXAN www.a2asimulations.com FOR SIMULATION USE ONLY North American T-6G/SNJ-7, the last and best of the breed in typical post-war and enumerating official aircraft paint colours in 1943. With numerous aircraft U.S. Air Force/Navy “trainer yellow”, a dark yellow/orange called “ANA Orange concentrated in the traffic patterns around military training fields, the easier their Yellow”, “Identification Yellow” or a darker shade, “Yellow # 4” (FS 13538)3, pilots could see each other the better, thus this bright colour. Also, in the event selected for its high visibility in all weather conditions. “ANA” (also seen as “A-N”) that one of them went down off-field or in the water, this high- vis paint made it stands for “Army and Navy”, a joint collaboration with regard to establishing more likely that they would quickly be found. Restored AT-6D with LP-21 rotatable loop ADF antenna in an aerodynamic ‘egg” RCAF Harvard MK. II in overall “Trainer Yellow” sometimes called “Mustard housing. This aeroplane is typical of those by the used by the USAAF for Advanced Yellow” (approximately FS 13358) wearing the post-war RCAF Type-1 roundel flight training during World War II seen here in standard U.S. Army colours, “ANA with red “Maple Leaf” centre and RAF Type C tri-colour fin flash. During WWII and Orange/Yellow” (FS13558) and “ANA True Blue” (FS 15102). until 1946, RCAF aircraft wore typical RAF Type A- three colour, Type A1 - four Note how much lighter “ANA True Blue” is compared to the thin vertical blue colour, Type B - two colour roundels and fin flashes; although during the war, a stripe on the rudder which is “Insignia Blue” (FS35044). This aeroplane is in few valiant, patriotic Canadian pilots unofficially “re-decorated” RAF tri-colour French registry. roundels on their aircraft by painting small red maple leaves on the RAF red centre circle. Harvard II was the equivalent to the USAAF’s AT-6A and Harvard IIA was the equivalent to the USAAF’s AT-6C which differed from the Mk. II in that to save more than 1,200 lbs. of aluminium, its entire rear fuselage was constructed of plywood and low alloy steel instead of the Mk.