71st Flying Training Wing
FWQ/Fixed Wing Qualification
Vance AFB
Full Colour
1989
This patch dates back to 1989, its easy to figure that out as it has the date on it! That's the easy bit. The students had to meet a
selection board who reviewed their records and selected them just like the
process for a promotion board. The idea behind the course was to afford rotary
wing pilots career expanding experience as helicopter pilots traditionally
never took high level leadership roles, so this was thought this would give them
an opportunity to advance.
The course was to
start at Randolph AFB, but all of the program was conducted at Vance AFB.
There were 8 pilots
in the class, 2 from a HH-3E background, 2 from HH-53’s and 4 from UH-1
background. The course length was flexible as each block of instruction had a
minimum/average/maximum number of sorties in the block. For example instrument
flying was no problem as the crews had previous experience performing this, so
they didn’t use much time to complete this, however formation flying was
challenging & fun and they all took the maximum number of flights to
complete.
The students started
the course by flying on the T-37 & the pilots shared a classroom with other
pre pilot instructor training students, who after completing their section of
the course went back to their units as
IP’s. While flying the Tweets they were treated just like students, & while
in this part of the course the USAF started issuing leather jackets, but as
they fell under AETC they weren’t issued one. They got in touch with someone at
MAC HQ where they all came from & a month later they were all wearing
leather jackets, in a show of defiance towards their punitive instructors.
They then
progressed onto the T-38 with their own classroom, where the instructors
treated them as pilots and were treated more collegial. While they were on the
course they outranked most of the instructor pilots
The patch was
thought up by Scott Di who was a jolly pilot, who had to persuade the 4 Huey pilots
for the design, but as they couldn’t come up with a design they agreed to it.
The T-37's were the first planes the crews flew for a FWQ...........
........& then it was onto the T-38A Talon.
(USAF photos)
If you have any additional information about this patch please contact me & I´ll get back to you.
Thanks👣
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