We were one happy bunch when we got to the base at Cuero and saw the PT-19's that we were to fly.
As usual we were assigned living space alphabetically according to our last names. Again our day was split up into ground school and physical training on one half day and flying on the other half. We were assigned to flights and instructors depending on our last names alphabetically. I was assigned to one of the best Primary flight instructors in the business in my opinion. His name was John Robertson. I had flown and soloed before I got into the Army so I was the first to solo in the group of cadets at Cuero. John took me out, showed me the area then took me to an auxiliary field and we shot some landings. He climbed out, then said, "OK make three landings, come back and pick me up." I was very elated, made the three landings without any trouble, came back, picked him up and flew back to the main field. Neither John nor I said anything to the others about me soloing. There was a custom that you wore your goggles around your neck until you soloed. After you soloed you wore them up on your flight helmet. I proudly went marching back to the barracks with my goggles on my helmet. The squad was stopped by a couple of the upperclassmen. One came to me and said, "Put your goggles around your neck, mister"! I replied, "No sir!" he got enraged and began to tell me that there was a custom to wear your goggles around your neck until you soloed. Then again demanded for me to put them around my neck. I did not move. The other upperclassman then told the angry one, "Some cadets solo a lot faster than you Fred!" With that we went to the barracks where the other guys threw me in the swimming pool which was also a custom for having soloed.
I was very fortunate for having soloed so early for it gave me a plane to fly essentially any time I needed to fly solo. As a result of this I got quite a bit more from Primary than was required. John was a very good instructor as I have said before and also very understanding. He taught me all the fundamentals, s turns across a road, s turns around a point, stalls, spins etc. he then told me to practice these things for he would fly with me a small amount of time, then if I did well he would put me up for my 25 hour check ride with the military check pilot.
John had also given me simulated forced landings. He would cut the power by pulling off the throttle and say, "Forced landing, where are you going to land it?" There are a lot of BIG fields in Texas so I would pick out one, determine the wind direction so I could go in up wind. I would get the plane down within a few feet of the ground. He would then take over and climb back to a safe altitude. I practiced these well and knew that I was prepared. I told John, he flew with me and put me up for the check ride. I did not have any trouble with it and successfully passed.
I then wanted to do some aerobatics but John was too busy with the other students to take the time teaching me them. I read the book on how to do several things, loops, rolls etc. and then asked John what ones of these I could try. He smiled and said, "What ever you have guts enough to try." I got a plane, went to altitude, about 5,000 feet. I decided to do a loop first. I put the plane into a dive to build up speed and when I thought it was enough I pulled back on the stick. The nose came up toward me, the ground looked like it slipped away rotating under me, then I looked up with my head and all I could see was sky, then the ground reappeared and I went through a dive until the nose came back up to the horizon. I was delirously happy for I had done a loop! I then almost wore myself out doing loops until they became boring. I then decided to do a roll. I knew from the book how to do it so I moved the stick to the right which caused the planes wings to tilt to the right just like in a turn but I gave the rudder some pressure to keep the plane straight and held the stick still to the right. The plane rolled upside down and then - Wow - the nose dropped down and I was in a dive toward the ground. I did the bottom half of a loop or a "split ess" as I came to find out later. This scared and shook me up for I did not know what had caused it. I flew around shaking and thinking about it for a while, then I figured out that when I got upside down I had to push the stick forward to make the nose stay up for the elevator action was reversed. I tried another roll and when I started to get inverted, I pushed the stick forward, then I was flying upside down! I thought, "How do I get out of this, then, I know, pull back on the stick and split ess!" I finally figured out that I had to move the stick forward and around to the center then back to the right and back toward me to continue the roll. I did this and when the horizon became level in front of me, I simply moved the controls so that the plane was straight and level again.
John flew with me a little more, then told me that he thought I was ready for my final check ride and that he would put me up for it. The Lieutenant that gave me the check ride had a reputation for washing out (getting rid) of students. I was somewhat shaky and of course used proper military words being very careful to address him as Sir! We went through all the fundamentals. Then he told me that he had it. He went up in the first half of a loop but leveled off inverted at the top. He then said, "You got it, and you have a forced landing!" I also saw him lock the controls which meant that the stick was all the way forward so that we were flying straight and level upside down. I looked toward the ground, there was a field that looked like it was half of Texas. I unlocked the controls, split essed out of the loop and simply made s turns on the down wind side of the field. This guy actually had me touch down on the ground before he took over and he flew back to the home field. I was shaking in my boots for I knew that this had been a very tough check ride. When we landed and stopped at the ramp, he shook my hand then said, "That was an excellent check ride mister!" I thanked him, saluted and he left. I almost collapsed with joy for it meant that I had successfully completed Primary training and I had done it in about 25 hours!
By the time we finished I had over a hundred hours in primary so was very fortunate.
Those of us that graduated were sent to Waco Texas for Basic flying training!

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