News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

EXTENSIVE FLYING OPERATIONS
AT RANDOLPH
Student pilots at the basic flying school
flew over 300 000 miles in cross-country
navigation fligtts during the month of M~,
according to figures recently computed.
Distance flights involving navigationproblems
have not been a part of the course of
instruction at Randolph Field in the past
two years. In M~, however, these flights
were again introduced as part of the 70 hours
of basic flying training.
Before completing his basic flying training
course each cadet participates in three
cross-country flights to various points in
Texas.
On a 3D-day month basis, officials estimate
that aviation cadets are aloft 1,000
hours each flying day per month.
Cadets Report From New SCh001s
Air defense pushed ahead another step when
the first aviation cadets from six new civilian
elementary flying schools arrived at
Randolph Field for basic flight instruction.
Out of 346 cadets in Cla~s 4l-H, which
started basic instruction the second week in
June, 187 were from schools where the training
set-ups started functioning a little
over ten weeks ago. The new schools at the
following localities furnished students, as
follows: Pine Bluff, Ark.} 31; Cuero, Texas,
34; Stamford, Texas, 19; uklahoma Clty, Okla.,
24, Corsicana, Texas, 37; and Phoenix,
Ariz., 42.
Of the remaining students in the new class,
turned in by the older elementary flying
schools, the larges t number, 86, was credi ted
to the one at Tulsa, Okla. followed by
East St. Louis, Ill.,with 5~; San Diego and
Santa Maria, Calif., wi th 12 and 3, respectively.
The new class will receive ten weeks of
training on larger and more maneuverable and
powerful aircraft than the type utilized in
primary training.
Showing Mistakes By Visual Method
Mechanical failures having been cut to zero,
flight instructors recently formed a
.vlsual educational" series of pictures to
erase the last remaining problem in pilot
training-the lIemptyvoid between earphonesll
mistake.
These pictures, which are on the walls of
every engLceering control office on the
field, show vividly what can happen when a
pilot "gl)es to sleep" during landings and
take-offs. One, demonstrating a plane with
its nose "biting the earth." has the capo.
tion: lI:J3ig feet, 11ttle jua.gment."
Another, of a smashed landing gear is
accompanied by the comment that the pIlot
made a "nice landing, but at 50 feet above
the ground. 1I
ed in road.1I
Failure of a pilot to shift mixtures on
the aircraft engine was blamed for a mishap
which was responsible for wing crumpling.
"Empty void between earphones ll was the ironical
comment.
IIEyesbut no vision" was the cause described
for another mishap where a student pilot
allowed the propeller of his plane to eat
away the wing of another plane.
Most mishaps in flight training are attributed
to human failure, and students who
persist in such obviously stupid IItricks"
must be removed from further training.
Accidents in which flyers are injured are
very rare at Randolph Field. In all mishaps
covered by the pictures, the only damage was
to the aircraft.
---000---
MURALS AT SCOTT FIELD
Two outstanding Chicago artists, greduates I
of its famous Art Institute, designed murals
for the walls of the general headquarters
building at Scott Field, Ill.
Ralph Hendrickson, who designed the mural
for the courtroom in the general headquar .•
ters building, has had a brilliant career
as a painter, winning the Robert Jenkins
Memorial prize in 1935, also the American
Travelling Scholarship and the European
Travelling Fellowship. His murals for Scott
Field, chosen from four sketches s1lbmitted,
symbolically depict a trainee, represented
by a central figure, being inducted into
the service. Grouped around the central
figure, service men- are represented working
in the various branches of the Army. An
American eagle in the foreground represents
the Army Air Forces.
Equally famous in this phase of art is
Miss Mildred Waltrip, whose mural will be
placed in the lobby of the general headquarters
building. Miss Waltrip, after gradu.-
ating from the Chicago Art Institute, won
both the resident fellowship and the $2,000
travelling fellowship. She studied inEurope
in 1934 and later at the New Bauhaus in
Chicago. Her mural will be painted in three
large panels and is to depict the history
of aviation, from mythological experiments
to the present modern stage. Showing the
first experiments by Leonardo Da Vinci,
early French balloon flights, including the
Picards' ascent into the stratosphere, it
will end with a painting of a modern bombing
plane. .
---000---
Featuring the recent celebration of Aviation
Cadet week in St. Louis, Mo., wae an
hour-long parade of 175 marching uni ts, including
38 bands. The Scott Field Aviation
Jo. })hotograph of a plane on a highway near Cadets were judged the best appearing outthe
Held with its landing gear and wings fi t in the parade, and the Radio School's
damaged, ~ears the following caption: "Ran- float a silver-colored model airplane 8Cdolph
Fleld too small for this pilot-land- tual size, evoked much favorable commend.
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