N795FC at North Island Navy Flying Club
 

I stumbled on to this thread while looking for a picture of N795FC. I would like to add something to crustychief's note from December 2011 about the condition of N795FC which I flew form 1994 through when it was grounded in around 2001.

Go read the archives on T-34 Association about how the T-34s were all grounded in 1999 when a mock air combat company pulled the wing off of a T-34. They folded and another such company did it in 2003 and a year later in 2004.

The FAA doesn't like to let things like six dead people go unnoticed so they put out some significant ADs (airworthiness directives) that if not followed grounded the airplane. Initially the AD allowed for more flying after inspections as I recall but a permanent fix meant "new metal" and it wasn't going to be cheap.

I was on the board at the North Island Navy Flying Club at the time. We tried to raise the money to pay for the required modifications but were unsuccessful. There were enough pilots who flew the T-34 that we figured we could get everyone to pitch in and then get paid back over time as they flew N795FC...but we were not allowed to do that.

Without the required mods, the N795FC another another T-34 at North Island Navy Flying Club were eventually grounded and, yes, they deteriorated sitting out on the ramp at the club which is a 100 yards from the San Diego Bay.

Did the club "let it rot"? I guess they did but they didn't have much choice.

795FC will eventually be put on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum the curator at the museum tells me -- he owed a T-34B for 20+ years and assured me it would not be traded away.

Another T-34 the club had now has a beautiful yellow paint job and is sitting at the Flying Leatherneck Museum at MCAS Miramar. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406016241.jpg

N795FC windscreen
 

Another quick note -- which is difficult for me -- about the North Island Navy Flying Club's T-34B, N795FC.

I see in the photo at the top of this thread that crustychief's R/C model of N795FC has a silver frame around the windscreen. As you can see in the photo that my previous post (assuming it is approved) the frame was white while all of the other canopy framing (or whatever it is called) is painted blue like the top of the fuselage.

Back in 1994 (might have been 1993) when NINFC (North Island Navy Flying Club) first got T-34s (might have been a T-34 in the club before then but I wasn't a member of the club until '93) we actually got two, N795FC and another T-34B. The windscreen on 795FC was crazed (hard to see through) so the mechanic swapped windscreens between our two T-34s -- the other one was mostly white including the frame around the canopies and windscreen. Ergo the white frame on 5FC.

Sometime in the late 90s one of the guys ("the" guy?) who decides what airplanes are offered as metal (die cast?) models put out by Arch Inc. called the club and said he wanted to have one made that had the Navy Recruiting Command paint job -- which is how 5FC was painted...

(Sidebar: There were some 52 (!!!) T-34Bs released by the Navy Recruiting Command in the early 90s. Many (most?) of them had the "FLY NAVY" paint job that 5FC had. The Navy Flying Club Manager was given the task of finding homes for the T-34Bs. For some reason the Air Force Aero Clubs declined the offer! Many Navy Flying Clubs got several of the T-34Bs. NINFC got two.)

...So this gentleman stopped by NINFC and took several pictures of 5FC which were sent off to China. The models came back (I'm sure there were a few dozen sold to members of the club) and...they had a silver frame around the front windscreen! :)

In the very late 90s (might have been after the turn of the century) NINFC received two T-34s (via flatbed) from the Corpus Christi Navy Flying Club. I have attached photos of those two T-34Bs to show the normal Recruiting Command paint job had a blue frame around the windscreen.

One of the Corpus Christi T-34Bs went to the San Diego Air & Space Museum along with 5FC. The other one sat in the "DRMO" (junk yard) at North Island until a couple of years ago when some museum on the west coast picked it up -- hopefully to restore and put on display.

(See, I said it was hard for me to be brief.)http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406017722.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406017733.jpg

Thanks for the info! I still fly the model regularly. I am the adopt a plane chairman for my local rc club, we adopted the plane at the Flying Leatherneck, I wash and detail it at least once a month on mondays ( the museum is closed on Mondays). I recently completed a T-6 texan2 that I will be test flying this weekend.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406318297.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406318358.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406318385.jpg

She is growing up!!!

This a COOL thread. I got my commercial ticket at the Norfolk Navy Flying Club in 1980 in a T34 -B. What fun I had, Now T34"s are crazy high priced. FLY NAVY

Lovely, Is it a built from sticks model? Love the 4 stroke sound. Refreshing to see in todays ARF/brushless state of the hobby.

I like the new face of RC in some regards. I can take one of my little park flying choppers to the school field for some quick flights before dinner. However, I miss the fiddly nature of glow engines, mechanical mixing, the smells and sounds, etc.

Maybe I need to pick up a Plank for park flying.

It is a top-flite gold edition kit ( box of sticks ) Top Flite T-34B Mentor 1/5 Scale Airplane Kit
The t-6 Texan 2 is an ARF ( almost ready to fly) made by ESM
ESM T-6 Texan II Color F 80" Wingspan Model ARF (ESMT6TEXANII-80FAF) - troybuiltmodels.com

Very very cool. It looks very convincing in flight - nice job!

This thread brings back some good memories, I flew the T-34C out of Whiting Field in Pensacola in Navy flight school. I had a few rides in Cessnas prior, but nothing high performance at all.

I vividly remember my first take off in the C, and how the plane jumped off the line when the throttle was advanced, and thinking 'oh man, this is gonna be SO MUCH FUN' :).

That plane was a blast to fly.

I also remember seeing the T-34's at North Island, when I was there flying S-3's. . . sorry to hear of their demise.

Sandy,

Found some pics. Analog never dies;) The Diego Garcia post got me looking again.

The form shot I took. I had played on the VT-6 team that won the base flag football championship and finished second in the eastern finals. So, one of the instructors, call sign "Oak", would let me fly front seat hops on form solo flights when I was stashed for helo school.

I'm bottom right in the team pic. Oak is back row, third from the left. V-22 test pilot, great Marine.

Then me in Columbia, SC.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406499386.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406499418.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406499437.jpg

Nice. they still use comprssed air for the retractable gear?

Cool thread! I flew the C in Corpus last year in the last squadron still flying them, VT-28. What a great plane, I loved every minute in it. I'm in cherry point now, training on the Herc.