Final Four: 4-ship formation flight possibly last for T-37s

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tonnette Thompson
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  As the T-37 Tweet prepares for its Air Force-wide retirement, Sheppard's 80th Flying Training Wing began saying its goodbyes Oct 2.

Instructor pilots who've utilized the training jet for years climbed into the side-by-side cockpit seats for one last four-ship formation. The Tweet will be phased out while Sheppard transitions to the T-6 Texan in 2008.

Even more amazing than the aircraft's longevity as the initial training jet for the Air Force is the collective flying hours of the pilots in the T-37: 26,568. The collectively have 34,824 hours in other airframes including the F-16, C-130, F-15, B-52, KC-10 and the Russian Su-27 Flanker.

"You don't see that a lot, so many guys with that many hours going up in one formation," said Maj. Dan Schuermann, an instructor pilot with the 97th Flying Training Squadron and a member of the formation.

Major Schuemann accounted for 3,429 hours in the Tweet. Others in the formation included: Lt. Col. Bo McGowan, 97th FTS commander, 3,813 hours; Lt. Col. Jeffrey Roach, 97th FTS, 3,041 hours; Maj. Eriik Nikula, 97th FTS, 3,495 hours; Maj. Ozgur Erdogan, 80th Operations Support Squadron, 3,457 hours; Maj. James Kuehn, 97th FTS, 3,155 hours; Maj. Jeff Grayson, 80th Operations Group, 3,122 hours; and Maj. Mike Stolt, 97th FTS, 3,056 hours.

When asked if the Tweet will be missed, Major Grayson, training chief for the 80th OG, didn't doubt it for a moment.

"I look forward to flying the new one, but I know I'll miss the T-37 once I can't fly it anymore," he said.

Maj. Nikula echoed this sentiment.

"It'll be bittersweet when they finally retire it," he said. "It's a wonderful airplane; one of the reasons I stayed in the military this long was to keep working with it. I've been around this plane for many years."

What makes this formation even more remarkable is most Tweet flights involve an instructor and their student. It isn't often that so many seasoned pilots go up in a Tweet at once.

Although this particular formation was significant, Major Schuermann said the instructors did what they've done so many times before in the T-37 - train.

"Four-ship training is a special qualification, one we don't even teach the students here," he said. "I know at least one pilot who used the flight to complete his four-ship formation qualification."

The Tweet has been flown at Sheppard since May 1966, used to train undergraduate pilots, undergraduate navigator students and tactical navigator students in fundamentals of aircraft handling and formation, instrument and night flying.

The first T-6 should arrive at Sheppard in January, slowly trickling in over the course of the next 18 months until all 75 aircraft have arrived. At the same time, the 141 Tweets residing at Sheppard will be gradually relocated to the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Instructors will begin flying the Texan in March, and the first student will step into the cockpit in August.