Primary Flight Training: Before You Fly (1945)

This documentary short film is intended to instruct U.S. Navy pilot trainees in the proper preparation of their airplane and their equipment prior to flight. A chief flight instructor demonstrates the correct method of holding, carrying, and wearing the parachute, but Mac, a trainee who thinks he has all the answers already, fails to pay attention and finds himself in deep trouble. Lt. Taylor, another instructor, shows a more attentive pilot trainee through the process of inspection of the plane and engine. But for every step this trainee learns well, Mac is elsewhere showing what can happen when one doesn't pay attention.