Saufley Pattern Entry
The training pace moved at a rapid clip. Student Naval aviators would solo on flight number 12 with 15-18 hours’ total experience. One of the major challenges facing these new aviators was the Saufley Field entry rules. Aviators performed takeoffs and landings at Saufley without radios. The runways at Saufley were 6,000 feet long and 150 feet wide. The Navy divided the runway into four quadrants, each 3,000 feet by 75 feet. That meant when landing, I would use the opposite half of the runway that the airplane in front of me used. If there was no airplane in front of me, I would land on the right side. While I was landing, airplanes were taking off on the left and right sides of the runway’s last 3,000 feet. Often, there would be up to 10 airplanes in the pattern at the same time and precise maneuvering was the key to making it back onto the runway. A busy pattern to be sure.
The pattern entry was a complicated, detail-filled procedure. To practice the pattern entry, I laid a piece of paper with a runway on the living room floor of our crash pad. To hone my skills, I walked through the pattern, reciting the call outs, power setting, configurations, and checkpoints. We had explicit calls out at certain points in the pattern. Failure to say it exactly as written in the procedures would cause a BA (Below Average Grade). The practice drilled the procedures into my brain and formed the basis of muscle memory. I wouldn’t have to think: canned responses to cue-driven checkpoints in the pattern. This heavy practice allowed me to be ahead of the airplane while I mastered landing procedures at Saufley Field.
Upon returning from the particle area to enter the landing pattern, I approached Saufley Field at 1,000 feet and 120 kts. I looked for aircraft already in the pattern orbiting at 1,000 feet and set up an interval for entry into the pattern. While in the circle at 1,000 feet, with my left-wing tip on the center of the field, I determined the active runway. As I approached point One (45 degrees from the landing area), I locked open the canopy, set the prop RPM to 2200, and set the manifold pressure to 23 inches. Then I completed the checklist down to landing gear. At point one, I would recite:
“Canopy, Front Locked Open.”
“Fuel indicates, 10 gallons left and 10 gallons right.”
“Landing Checklist complete except Prop, Gear, and flaps.”
Now I approached point two, with the landing runway off my left wing. There, I closed the throttle and maintained 1,000 feet in a level turn until parallel with the landing runway. At 110 Kts, I lowered the landing gear and at 90 kts I added power up to 13”s manifold pressure. The T-34 descended at 90 kts to 500 feet and then I added 23”s of manifold pressure to maintain altitude at 90 kts. I observed other T-34s in the pattern as I flew upwind. Once I reached the end of the runway and with the plane ahead of me at a 30-degree angle to my left wing, I started a 25-degree level turn to the right, staying at 90 knots and 500 feet. Interval was always taken on the crosswind turn so every landing would commence from the same point. We were already practicing for landing on an aircraft carrier. When I rolled wings level on the downwind, I would recite:
“Gear down and locked.”
“Brakes firm.”
“Parking brake in.”
“Temperature and pressure normal.”
On the downwind, abeam the landing point, I reduced the power to 16”s of manifold pressure, pushed the prop to full increase, and dropped full flaps. I held back pressure on the stick and the speed drooped to 80 kts when abeam the end of the runway. There I rolled into a 15-20 degree left bank and started a descent to the runway. Power was adjusted to maintain a 500/minute rate of descent while slowing to 70 kts in the turn to final. The target for landing was a box 300 feet from the runway at 100 feet and 70 kts. Holding the same attitude the airplane was flown into landing area without a flare, aiming to touch down on the runway at the 500-foot marker. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment, having mastered the traffic pattern as a pilot with 10 hours of Navy flight time.