The extremely short range of the Pinto was (and to a large extent still is) a common issue with trainer and fighter type aircraft. I flew T-37s and T-38s in pilot training and neither one would fly much more than an hour on full fuel in a training environment. The T-38 actually had the lower endurance, with 1 hour 15 minutes being a typical training mission, dropping to as low as 45 minutes if you used afterburner a lot. The T-37 gave missions of more like 1.5 hours training. Both aricraft could do better at high altitude on a cross country flight. In fact a big reason for the low endurance was the unusually low altitudes (for a jet) that we flew our missions. T-38s missions were typically between 12K and 26K while the T-37 missions were in the low teens and lower. Any jet will burn tons of fuel at such low altitudes, part of the reaosn for the poster's recollection of exceptionally poor range at altitudes below 10,000 ft.

Of course another issue with the pinto and t-37 was that they were unpressurized. Military regulations during my time in the USAF would not allow altitude of over 25K in an unpressurized aircraft so even on a long cross country (well maybe not so long) you would fly your T-37 at no higher than 25K, and the fuel consuption would suffer. My recollection is that we typicallyplaned cross country ranges of 300 or so NM on the T-37 and about twice that on the T-38, and we didn't land with NBAA IFR reserves either. I believe military rules required 20 minutes or 5% of takoff fuel at your destination, plus fuel to an alternate if one was required due to weather. That might only wourk out to a total of 20 minutes of fuel at the destination, although we always had more since we were practicing approaches when we got to where we were going.

I have one flying in Akron Ohio if anyone wants to visit.

Mike Curry
330-388-1926

I also learned to fly in the Pinto, I don't remember which class we were in but we started flying the Pinto in August 1959. I concur with Dennis Young's remark about always landing with the low fuel light on. We normally didn't fly above 10,000 feet, but the sylabbus had one flight to 15,000 ft.-but we were "jet pilots". After flying the Pinto we went on to be the first class to fly the T2 Buckeye (when it was a single engine airplane. I flew F8's in the fleet and then spent 36+ years flying for United, but still have fond memories of the Pinto-sort of like your first love.
This being the 50th anniversary of my learning to fly in the Pinto, does anyone know where I might go to see one that is still flying?

I'm supprised at the wing-span. I have owned a Temco Swift for 16 years with a IO-360 engine (Continental 210 HP) and the wing span on it is also 29ft 10 inches. If the Pinto is anything like my Temco SwIFT iT IS A GREAT AIRCRAFT. Jack Thompson

I worked on this plane in 1957 for TEMCO in Grand Prairie,
Texas
Thanks

I was in the sixth class at Pensacola to fly this great little plane while in primary flight training in the fall of 1959. One of the things I recall was we always landed with the low fuel light on as its max flight time was around one hour and fifteen minuets and because of this, the tower always cleared us for immediate landing ahead of the T34's who would have to go around until we were down.