North American SNJ/AT-6/Harvard

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The instrument panel has been through at least one upgrade since World War II, but has kept some original instruments such as thefull-circle tachometer (above left). The tan butterfly on the bottom of the panel was made by the owner's son Whitt, when he was

four years old and has remained in place for more than 12 years. The cassette deck is not original.

side of the cockpit, set at 10 and twoo'clock, respectively. You notice thathuman factors were not what they aretoday; the wheels are identical, so youimpress upon your memory that therudder trim is outboard.

Not an old geezerSuddenly, you have nothing to do andfind yourself questioning what in theworld you are doing here, testing yourmettle in a 60-something-year-old air­plane built before aircraft design hadbecome the science it is today. In theNavy it was the SNJ, the Army referredto it as theAT-6, and the Royal Air Forcecalled it the Harvard; perhaps thosefolks were telling you something abouthow tough this institution of higherlearning will be to fly. You are awarethat it was purposely built to handlelike the fighters of the era-only thereare those who say that North Americandid its job too well, that the SNJ is morechallenging to fly than its more famoussibling, the P-51 Mustang. You suddenlywonder about a comment made in

passing by Stan Musick as he briefedyou before the two of you climbed intohis airplane-that the Mustang is agood trainer for the SNJ.

Before you can ponder the issue fur­ther, the oil temperature passes 40 andMusick suggests you head toward therunway. A little power gets the 5,300pounds of airplane rolling. You can'tsee a thing over the nose, so you taxi ina shambling weave, gingerly using thebrakes to steer, because the SNJ has afree-swiveling tailwheel, virtually theonly difference between it and the AT­6, which has one that is steerable.

Runup noisily brings home thatthere is some power up front as youhold the stick full aft and cycle theprop at 1,600 rpm. Next, you do a fieldbarometric pressure check to confirmthat the engine is developing ratedpower and that the propeller low pitchstop is set properly. Increase poweruntil the manifold pressure is thesame as it was prior to engine start(field barometric pressure). As thenoise reaches a howling, blasting

crescendo and you fight to hold thetail down amid the hurricane wind,you see that all is well because 2,200rpm are generated; then you check themags and restore relative calm bypulling the throttle back to idle.

You've wanted this day to happenfor years and now it's finally time to seeif you can fly this beast. Line up careful­ly, roll forward a little bit to center thetailwheel, and move the locking leverto hold it. A glance in the mirror; Mu­sick's back there looking calm. He'sdone this before; he is one of the veryfew check airmen for fighters for theCommemorative Air Force, whichmeans he's demonstrated not only alevel of skill that inspires reverenceamong his peers, but also judgmentabout operating very high-powered,old aircraft that is deeply respected.Nevertheless, the rear seat of an SNJ isutterly blind in three-point attitudeand this is your first time in one ofthese large displacement birds, so youknow he is as alert as a long-tailed catin a room full of rocking chairs.

AOPA PILOT· 68 •MARCIl 2007

~eaustere monochromatic paint-schemed cockpit is open to the belly of the airplane withays for the pilot's feet (above left). The left side of the cockpit is a busy place with rudder~delevator trim wheels, wobble pump handle, carb heat knob, gear handle, and flap leverop right). The hydraulic power control lever activates the hydraulic system for about twolinutes (above right).

Roaring Into the airSmoothly, steadily, ease the throttleforward to, oh, man, 36 inches of man i­fold pressure. Before you get the levereven halfway there the SNJ has startedto let you know it understands the con­cept of acceleration. There are 600horses up there, only two people backhere, and the noise is making yourteeth hurt. The airplane wants to dartleft, so get on the right rudder, not thatmuch, and boy, oh, boy, are these con­trols sensitive, and keep your eyesout of the cockpit and keep it goingstraight. Glance in for a moment andthere's 60 knots so a little bit of back

pressure, rats, not that much, and, holysmokes, are these controls light andwe're climbing and there's 80 knots soget the gear up. You reach for the ovalhydraulic power control lever nearyour left hip, and then push it down.The hydraulic pump is always running;the handle activates the system for twominutes to allow the gear or flaps to op­erate. Now grab the gear handle, anoddly curved bit of metal, move it for­ward a bit, out of the detent, and thenall the way up. The two gear-down

AOPA PILOT· 69· MARCH 2007

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lights wink out and you feel theairplane accelerate a bit as thewheels chunk into the wells.

Power back to 30 inches and

2,000 rpm for the climb and trimfor 100 knots. The SNJ is nearlytwice the weight of the generalaviation airplanes you've beenflying, but you are rapidly discov­ering that its controls are by farthe lightest of anything you'veever flown. Youseem to just thinkabout something and the air­plane snaps out a quick "Aye,aye!" and complies.

You climb high, at least 9,000feet above the ground becauseyou want to get to know this air­plane and you've heard somestories about it having a veryuntrainerlike characteristic-

it isn't forgiving of mistakes.Looking out at the degree ofsweep of the wing leading edges,you consider that if you don'tkeep the ball centered when youstall, the resulting yaw meansone of those wings is going tohave a lot more lift than the other

and the airplane might just rolloff with vigor. You'll soon findthat you're right.

Set 21 inches of manifold pressureand 1,800 rpm, which generates "lowcruise," about 140 KTASwhile burning25 gph. Published usable fuel is 100 gal­lons in left, right, and reserve tanks (notwo of which are the same size); howev­er, you also remember that the manualsays full usable fuel is available only ifthe tail is lifted to level attitude duringfueling, so realistic usable fuel is about96 gallons. That seems a healthy numberuntil you consider that should you de­cide to do aerobatics or just stay in thepattern for touch and goes, you mustplan on burning more like 45 to 50 gph.

Level flight is a one-fingertip affair. Ittakes some getting used to before yourelax that grip on the stick and begin toabsorb the light, responsive feel of thisthoroughbred. The SNJ only looksround and stubby; it flies lean andquick. It seems a serious error to havesaddled this delightfully agile machinewith such a stodgy title as "trainer,"even if it is "advanced." Musick has youtry some turns. Almost immediatelyyou find you can't help but roll in andout rapidly; it takes almost no effortand the fast roll rate is exciting. Steepturns take some work initially becauseit's so easy to overcontrol; you can load

Suddenly, it's anE-ticket ride­

Shazat!-in$tantlyyou're rolling past

inverted.

up a lot of Gs with very little effort,which causes the big airframe to rapid­ly scrub off speed. It's not set and for­get, as are most airplanes you are usedto; here you're flying every moment.

Air gamesStalls are next. Musick has told you in nouncertain terms that the ailerons are to

be kept centered during stall recovery.Any use of aileron during stall recoverymay well be most unpleasantly counter­productive as you experience aileron re­versal. Cautiously you ease the powerback and approach your first stall. Youwait for the prestall buffet that the booktold you about. What! Without anywarning that you could discern, the nosepitches down abruptly and the SNJ rollshard left. You sit there, foolishly unmov­ing for a moment, then shove the stickforward while keeping the ailerons cen-

tered and using the rudder tostop the roll. To your amaze­ment, almost instantaneouslythe SNJ is flying again. It's as ifyou flicked a light switch: click,stalled, click, flying. You try an­other, and yet several morestalls. You still cannot detect anyprestall buffet; the stall is aston­ishingly abrupt, but so is recov­ery. It is utterly black and white.The behavior is the same with

the gear and flaps extended.Musick steps up the pace and

encourages you to explore theupper-left corner of the perfor­mance envelope, that is, high-G,or accelerated, stalls. At idlepower you roll into a 60-degreebank and pull firmly. Suddenly,it's an E-ticket ride-Shazat!­instantly you're rolling past in­verted. You are amazed at how

very quickly you went from asteep turn to well past upsidedown, and you are still rollingand the nose is dropping and,ah, nuts, you've spun the SNJ.How embarrassing. The rate ofrotation is impressive; Musick isin the backseat chortling over

the intercom, and you finally quit gee­whizzing over the whirling pictures inthe windshield and put in full oppositerudder and heave the stick well forward.

Nothing happens. You're still spin­ning. This is different; a Cessna 152would have recovered by now. You checkthat you have opposite rudder to thestop and the stick forward all the way.The world is still going around andaround; the altimeter is unwinding andMusick is back there, laughing. Then younotice that the rate of rotation is slowingand the nose is dropping. OK,you're nowin a dive, so center the rudder and pullout. Gently. With those incredibly lightcontrols you can easily load up the Gsand stall again. As you climb back up toaltitude, Musick reminds you that it cantake several turns to stop a developedspin in an SNJ.

You try another accelerated stall. Thistime the SNJ breaks and rolls rapidlythrough level flight. Full opposite rudderand stick forward, and the roll hasstopped, and it's flying. You're starting tofeel that you're catching on now as yousmoothly fly the airplane back to levelflight. Suddenly, accelerated stalls arelike eating potato chips; you keep doingthem, at various power settings, andhave more fun than you've had in weeks.

AOPA PILOT' 70· MARCH 2007

Stan Musick (left) performs in his AT-6C in airshows across the country. Built in 1942, the aircraft is based atthe Booneville, Arkansas, airport.

Sweat equityThe floor-mounted fuel gauges make itclear that it's time to head back for the

airport. On the way, you stretch andflex your toes, desiring to be a virtuosoon the all-important rudder pedalsduring landing because you want tokeep this massive airplane going per­fectly straight during rollout. NorthAmerican built some 23,000 SNJs/AT-6s/Harvards, with production costseventually getting down below $13,000per unit. There are fewer than 500 stillflying today, and you have no desire toreduce that number because of inepti­tude and thus find out that a nice one is

worth well into six figures.On downwind you target slowing to

100 KIASwhile Musick encourages youto stay very close to the runway so thatyou are able to hit it ifthe engine quits.Drop the gear once you are under 125knots, and check the green lights, thetwo pointers by your left knee, and themechanical indicators on each wingroot to confirm the gear is down andlocked. Abeam the runway threshold,make a further power reduction andstart turning for the runway. At Mu-

sick's su"ggestion you go ahead anddrop all the flaps and st~rt slowing to 90on base, anticipating 80 on final. Onceon final, you slide the prop and mixturecontrols all the way forward and workto line up with the centerline, with ab­solutely no drift. Every nerve alert, youclose the throttle and start to flare, aim­ing for a three-point touchdown, withthe stick all the way aft. You find your­self overcontrolling because of the verylight pitch forces and your reaction asthe nose comes up and blocks the viewforward. Your tension builds as the

wind noise diminishes and you be­come aware of the subdued lope of theidling Pratt.

Finally, touchdown, on all threewheels, and almost immediately theSNJ fakes right and darts left. You areready with instant doses of rudder,taming the animal, holding the lockedtailwheel firmly against the gr"ound,sweating, straining to sense anyswerve, any departure from where youare determined to go. This is not aneasy airplane to land. Aft.er whatseems a sweaty eternity you are rollingslowly and it's time to unlock the tail-

wheel to make the turn to head back

to parking.Drawing to a stop at the chocks, you

take your time going through the shut­down checklist; you want to savor thisawhile longer, the powerful bass rum­ble of the big radial, the austere, func­tional cockpit, and the oil-scentedbreeze through the open canopy. Mix­ture to idle cutoff and the prop coaststo a stop, taking much longer than theairplanes you ordinarily fly. Yes, youflew it. You were able to fly an ancientpelican, after careful review of its com­p~ex systems, although you were at theragged edge of your ability a few times,and it's good you did the stalls way uphigh and had a very good instructor.Nevertheless, you did it. Yes, it willprobably take you 20 or 30 hours beforeyou are comfortable in the SNJ, but amodern pilot with a decent skill level, awillingness to use rudder pedals, anda fair amount of determination can

fly one of the hot ships built for the .Greatest Generation. /!CPA

Rick Durden, AOPA 684126, is an aviation

attorney in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

AOPA PILOT' 71· MARCH 2007