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Letter: ‘What vices?’

By General Aviation News Staff · July 25, 2010 ·

In regard to the article (Titan Aircraft T-51: 3/4 scale, 100% fun) about the Titan T-51 in which you said the Titan was a “hoot” to fly while avoiding the vices of the original. I am curious as to just what these vices were? In General Yeager’s book he said that it was a tricky airplane to fly, so I asked him, just what characteristic was tricky? He replied, “The tail wheel”. Was this one of the “vices” of which you spoke? In the 1930s and 1940s we grew up in tailwheels and I guess just didn’t know any different. I never flew a nose wheel until I flew the P-38 in 1945. Then into the Mustangs where my assignment was flight test maintenance officer. I flew over 300 functional flight tests after the mechanics finished their work and before they went back on the flight line. I always said the “D” model was a mechanics airplane and the “H” was a pilots airplane. The “H” had the -9 Merlin in it with a Simmons boost that automatically kicked in the supercharger and you did not advance the throttle upon shutdown. I flew the “D” model only 100 hours but logged 1000 hours in the “H”and enjoyed every minute of it. We appreciate getting your publication at our local airport, Highland County Airport (HOC), Hillsboro, Ohio. It brings us up to date on just what is going on out there in the aviation world.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Darrell R. Larkin
Hillsboro, Ohio

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Comments

  1. BD says

    July 25, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    Vice — Probably all the gas it burns and lead it dumps into the atmosphere, there, old-timer. The world has changed – open your eyes.

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