W.W.II Army Air Force Flight Instructor
Avenger Field, Sweetwater Texas
Home of the WASP's 1942-1944
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Pilot Training
The U.S. flying schools were operated by civilian companies under contract and basic and advanced flying schools were operated by the Army Air Force. Therefore, the flight instructors were civilian employees. Each sudent was given sixty hours of flight training in nine weeks before moving on the basic flight school.
During basic flight training, a student would received 70 hours or so in the air during a nine week period. The students would operate planes of greater weight, horsepower, and speed such as the BT-9, BT-13 and BT-15. The student was taught how to fly at night, instruments, in formation, and cross-country.
Advanced flying school was to prepare the student for the kind of airplane he would fly in combat, either single or multi-engine. Those who went to single-engine school flew the AT-6 for approximately 70 hours during a nine week period, learning aerial gunnery and combat maneuvers and incresing their flying skills. Students assigned to twin-engine school received the same number of flying hours using the AT-9, AT-10, or AT-17. However they concentrated on increasing their ability to fly on instruments, at night, and in formation.
The WASP went through exactly the same primary, basic and advanced training as every male cadet in the Army Air Force. Once the WASP earned their wings, many of them went through specialized training (B-26 school, B-17, etc.) Assured that they would be part of the military before the end of the war, some WASP were even ordered to begin officer training.
There were 1830 women who were accepted into the WASP training program out of 25,000 who applied. Of that 1,830, there were 1,074 women who earned their wings, leaving 756 trainees who were washed out for one reason or another (or were killed in training exercises before they could complete training).
Reasons for washing out were numerous--but the number one reason was -- "can't fly the army way!" Every single trainee had to already have a pilots' license to enter the WASP...many had more hours in the air and more experience than some of the instructors.
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