Memphis PT-19 Flying Club

Hacker

Hacker

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Hacker
Nice little article in this month's AOPA Pilot mag about a Fairchild PT-19 flying club that I'm part of in Memphis.

The club is primarily focused on getting younger pilots involved in tailwheel and warbird flying. About half the pilots in the club have less than 50 hours of tailwheel time, and a couple of them are getting their initial tailwheel endorsements in the PT.

The airplane is based in the same hangar as the Memphis CAF squadron (as you can see in the photo, with a couple of T-6s, a Stearman, and others right there), and there is some overlap between the people involved in the club and the CAF unit (but the PT isn't a CAF airplane at all).

Pretty neat airplane and group with a fantastic objective to bring in and up the next generation of warbird pilots.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media.../pilot/flying-clubs-warbird-inspires-new-club

1809p_bf_flyingclubs_16x9.jpg
 
We need a "like" button on this board. I'm not about to move, but that looks like a fun club to belong to.
 
Half Fast said:
Very cool!

When I was a kid, I (and probably half of my generation) had a line control Cox PT-19 model. I’ve had a fondness for the real thing ever since.

There was one at Sun n Fun this year. Was that you guys, by chance?
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I had the exact same Cox model! I'd be fibbing if I said I wasn't just a little inspired by that toy when joining the club.

The airplane was at OSH, but not SnF. Perhaps in '19.
 
Hacker said:
I had the exact same Cox model! I'd be fibbing if I said I wasn't just a little inspired by that toy when joining the club.

The airplane was at OSH, but not SnF. Perhaps in '19.
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I think we ALL had that exact same model! :D Someday I’ll get one off eBay, just to relive childhood.

Hope you make it to SnF next year. I’d love to see the plane.
 
Half Fast said:
Hope you make it to SnF next year. I’d love to see the plane.
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The club is still in its infancy, and the airplane is going to need a lot of continued TLC.

It had been sitting unused for a long time prior to the acquisition by the club founders, and has seen more use in the past couple months than probably the previous several decades. Structurally and mechanically it is in good enough shape, but it definitely isn't a show-piece.

To be honest, I actually like that it looks a little rough (that's how warbirds should be....not polished and so clean you could eat off 'em!), but that probably won't make it all that popular at an airshow.

I think the real story is that the group is trying to be an entryway for younger and low time pilots into this kind of flying. I'm the "old man" of the group at 45 and the only professional pilot: most everyone else is under 30 and working their way up through their ratings, going to college, etc. When I was in college, I wanted to do more tailwheel flying and wanted to get into the warbird world, and I ran into a lot of "no" in a lot of different places because I didn't have a lot of flying time, tailwheel time, and was just young (which was apparently a problem for the folks holding the keys to the airplanes). It is refreshing to find a group of people with this kind of attitude who want to provide opportunities to like minded folks.

An appearance at a show like SnF would, I hope, help inspire others to try and start up similar clubs with similar airplanes.
 
Looks like a good club to be a member.
 
Half Fast said:
When I was a kid, I (and probably half of my generation) had a line control Cox PT-19 model. I’ve had a fondness for the real thing ever since.
Click to expand...

Well, I didn't have one, but I did get to fly one at Disneyland back in about 1968. That was part of Tomorrowland back then; they had a caged area and people from the crowd could try their hand at flying a control line airplane.
 
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