Who is Mümtaz TOLLUOĞLU, one of the legendary F-104 pilots of the Air Force?

One of the legendary pilots of the Air Force is Mümtaz Tolluoğlu. Mümtaz Tolluoğlu was a quiet, calm, hardworking and very knowledgeable pilot in terms of general personality traits. He passed away on June 7, 2017. Today is the death anniversary of this valuable pilot. It has been 6 years since he passed away. I served with him, flew in the same arm, and learned a lot from him, especially flying. In this article, I would like to introduce him to you and commemorate Tolluoğlu by talking about our common memories.

Standing left to right in the picture: Sinan Osay, one after Oktay Karasoy, two after Günay Özcan Seated: Toto Kemal Yücetürk in the center, Göksel Erdöl, Yıldırım Meriç, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu

The picture above shows the 191st Cobra Squadron in 1979, before our arrival. 

Standing: Erdoğan Şan, Lütfü Şenel in the fourth row, İsmail Ürek, İsmail Ergüt next, Özden Türkön, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu on the far right at the back 

Seated: Sinan Osay, Arif Özkul, Günay Özcan, Ahmet Fırıncı, Namık Kemal Aşıcı, Atilla Savaşan, Ömer Şengün Yılmaz Pekkaya, Metin Erginli 

I got to know Mümtaz TOLLUOĞLU when I was serving in the 191st Squadron of the 9th Base between 1979 and 1984. I was assigned to the 191st Squadron Command of the 9th Base in 1979. This squadron had F-104 aircraft at that time. There were many pilots in the squadron who were much older than us in rank, 'thicker' as the old saying goes. They all had experience written all over their faces. 

My friends and I had two years of F-5 flight experience. Now we had to adapt to the F-104 and serve in this squadron. 

In the picture below, there is a picture from before 1979. The ones I remember are: Günay Özcan, Göksel Erdöl, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu, Aydoğan Babaoğlu (Air Force Commander between 2007 and 2009), Oktay Karasoy (Lieutenant General), Yılmaz Pekkaya, Yıldırım Meriç, Ender Dikmen, Sinan Osay, Toto Kemal Yücetürk.

The picture shows 029 TF-104 with Niyazi Özbay in the back and his circuit mate Metin Erginli in the front (Later, Metin Erginli was lost in the air for some reason during a flight and had to land on the fuselage at Afyon Square). 

Mümtaz Tolluoğlu graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1968. He was a pilot who flew mostly in F-104 squadrons such as Mürted (Ankara), Balıkesir and Diyarbakır. In 1979, when I joined the 191st Squadron, I made my first flight with Mr. Tolluoğlu. After getting to know the environment, we moved on to the landing and take-off practice phase. After a few landings and take-offs, Tolluoğlu asked me, "Have you flown with the F-104 before?". I was very honored by this question. Because I could do the air movements without any difficulty, and I could also make landings. I said, "No, sir. But I liked the airplane, I want to be a good F-104 pilot, so I worked hard to learn the airplane." 

On my second sortie, I was flying with Kaya Konakkuran, our Squadron Commander at the time, in a TF-104 (two-seater) aircraft with tail number 029. While Professor Konakkuran was showing me high-altitude aerobatics in the air, we both suddenly realized that the controls were locked. The plane was tilting slowly to the right and then to the left on its own. From behind, my instructor Konakkuran said, "Hold on to the controls tightly, don't let go of the yoke, so that the airplane doesn't nose dive." I tried to do as he said, we were very tired from fighting with the plane. Meanwhile, the airplane did not want to give altitude, as if it was resisting us. We opened the dive flaps, the airplane started to become more stable, but the problem was not completely fixed. We also put the landing gear in early. The airplane got relatively better, but the stalling continued. We slowly descended towards the square with difficulty and approached for the final approach in these conditions. We decided to land in a cautious pattern with a long approach. We were ready to jump if we completely lost control of the aircraft after a possible uncontrolled bank. As a result, we did not encounter as many problems as we feared and had a smooth landing. Immediately after landing, we told the flight line technician who came to the aircraft during the end of runway checks about the problem in the control system of the aircraft. The technician walked around the aircraft and made end of runway checks. He said that there was no obstacle to the rule. So we made a rule to the flight line and safely stopped the engine in the parking lot. In fact, this TF-104 aircraft with tail number 029 was everything for our fleet. Because there was no other dual-control TF-104 aircraft in the fleet that we could train with other than this aircraft. Aircraft Maintenance Command worked very hard to find the malfunction of aircraft number 029. Finally, it was determined that the control problem we experienced in the air was caused by air leakage during hydraulic refueling. When this 'air leak' expanded in the air, the resulting pressure put us in a very difficult situation. 

Again, the experience flights of Flight 029 were legendary. In one of them, while the throttle lever was in the after burner (max AB) position for maximum power on take-off, the throttle cable was severed. As a result, the engine remained in the AB position. The pilot then met the runway very well and after putting the wheels on the runway, since he could not control the throttle lever, he switched the main fuel shut-off switch in the cockpit to the off position in order to stop the engine on the runway, thus successfully stopping the engine. Afterwards, he kept the airplane on the runway as in a normal landing and was able to stop the airplane at the end of the runway without any accident or incident. 

In 1982-83, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu was experimenting with an F-104 airplane when he entered a pitch-up with an F-104G airplane and had to jump out because he could not control the controls. 

In the picture below, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu is seen experiencing a CF-104 at 40,000 feet in Diyarbakır. 

In the picture above, the late Uğur Karyağdı (my pilot friend who was martyred during the attack on the Efe radar, which I described in yesterday's article) is seen in the circle. Others (from left to right) Yıldırım Meriç, Sezai Şener, the late Erdoğan Şan, the late Uğur Karyağdı, Niyazi Özbay Seated: Alpay Meral, Metin Erginli, Sinan Osay and myself Vedat Gürbüz. 

Aviation used to be a chivalrous business. It was said that no one was born an ace, but aces were raised. We were raised very well by our instructors in this way. Instructor Tolluoğlu wanted young pilots to increase their self-confidence, to know all the characteristics of the aircraft by heart and not to be afraid of the airplane. For this purpose, he would always make the young pilots who flew with him to perform aerobatics on the arm at the end of the flight, exhausting them thoroughly but at the same time putting them through their paces. Flying on Tolluoğlu's arm was both an honor and a skill. Tolluk, Uğur Karyağdı and I would do countless loops on Tolluoğlu's arm every time we flew as a trio. We would get tired, but we would enjoy it very much. We would stay on the instructor's arm 'like a pin' and try not to leave the arm no matter what he did. If we experienced a little sagging in the arm, we would feel sad that we would embarrass the instructor, and we would get angry with ourselves.

Another photograph, a picture taken in 1980 on the 191 Squadron line (from left to right) The late Erdoğan Şan, the late İsmail Ürek, Squadron Commander Güney Kayar, Ferit Yılmazok, İsmail Ergüt, Vedat Gürbüz, the late Ahmet Özcan

Above is the picture taken during the Cyprus Peace Operation during the Mürted deployment. From left to right, top row: Günay Özcan, Mümtaz Tolluoğlu, Intelligence Officer (I cannot remember his name), Ender Dikmen, Sinan Osay, Sinan Çeliker, Rahmi Kayar, Aydoğan Babaoğlu, Faruk Cömert, Mehmet Akbaba. Front row: Behçet Algın, Sabahattin Hastürk, Fahrettin Ergeng, Süleyman Koçak, Oktay Karasoy, Faruk Kalfa, Osman Boyalar and Yıldırım Meric 

As you read this article about Tolluoğlu Hodja, which contains memories of aviation, you may ask yourself the following: Have you always done good things?

No, we also made mistakes from time to time. Even in this situation, there was a Tolluoğlu who did not leave safety in the hands. The existence of such highly disciplined personalities was a chance for the squadrons they served in. One day, we were going to go to the Eskişehir firing range in a column of four from Balıkesir and shoot. The leader was Yılmazok, number three was Tolluoğlu, number four was me. I can't remember number two now. On that day, we entered the Eskişehir firing range with a delay, I don't remember exactly, over a tree-lined village. I kept an eye on the BINGO fuel, for some reason I was low on fuel that day. In the middle of the firing, while counting the fuel to the arm leader, I signaled "number 4, fuel bingo." The leader said OK. So he had made a note of my fuel status. On the second dive, I said "number 4, fuel bingo" again. The leader said to continue the dive and stated that these would be the last dives and that we would start our return to Balıkesir. So I made the last dive, and I warned the leader again, "Number 4, out." At the end of the shot, the leader had planned to gather in the column on the way to Balıkesir, but I was supposed to be following them. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't made the last dive, but we did it. Then I turned in the direction of Balıkesir, but the column seemed to have disappeared. I was continuing my flight in the direction of Balıkesir, guessing where the arm in front of me might be, but I couldn't see anyone. As I was heading towards Balıkesir at full speed, I finally saw three planes, but I couldn't slow down. Meanwhile, Tolluoğlu Hoca, whose arm I was approaching, was following me as I approached his plane. The fact that I was rapidly approaching him made Hodja uneasy and he got angry with me as number 3. He pulled his plane up in a huff. In this situation, I, who could not hold on to the arm, passed by him like a firecracker, getting ahead of Mr. Tolluoğlu and almost overtaking him. As I approached the arm, my mind was on fuel. My speed control had weakened. Hodja had realized this and in order to prevent me from hitting him with a possible mistake, he had pulled his plane up, taking precautions to prevent a collision. Thus, as number 3, he ensured that the flight continued without a collision. When he saw that I had slowed down, Mr. Tolluoğlu took his place in the quadruple arm and I took his arm as number 4. 

Now let's talk about the Cyprus Peace Operation of the 191st Squadron. The 191st Squadron had participated in the Cyprus Peace Operation by transferring to another theater. It was transferred to Ankara, to Mürted Air Base as a squadron. Due to the war, the Turkish Army was on high alert and some air units were relocated. The T - 37C aircraft of the 122nd Basic Training Squadron based in Çiğli were moved to Cumaovası, the 142nd Squadron based in Mürted was moved to Balıkesir, the 152nd Day Interceptor F-5A Squadron was moved from Merzifon to Yenişehir; The 181st F-100C Bombardment Squadron stationed in Diyarbakır was transferred to Antalya and the 184th Reconnaissance Squadron to Incirlik, the 182nd F-102A Squadron at Mürted was transferred to Balıkesir, the 191st F-104G Squadron at Balıkesir was transferred to Mürted, and the 301st S-2E Maritime Surveillance Squadron stationed in Bandırma was transferred to Antalya. 

As part of the war preparations, before the First Cyprus Peace Operation began, the F-104Gs of the 191st Squadron were made ready for the operation at Mürted. As a member of the 191st Squadron, our teacher Ender Dikmen, who participated in the Cyprus Peace Operation at that time, had the following impressions of the operation: On July 21, 191 Squadron, like 141 Squadron, was on the ground waiting for a mission. When the pilots of the 141st Squadron were given a mission, we knew that our turn would follow. As a matter of fact, our squadron was ordered to take off a little later. The take-off order to our squadron was actually given on general alert. In other words, it was necessary to take off as soon as possible, and the planes should not be caught on the ground. For this reason, we could not even wait for the aircraft navigation systems to be ready (aligned). We arrived at the runway before the planes were aligned, all pilots were in our planes, and we waited there with the planes running. The S/S auxiliaries were not being operated either. I was Aydoğan Babaoğlu's number two. We took off in column for an attack mission. The planes of 141 Squadron had already taken off before us. Our squadron was one of the famous squadrons of the Air Force at that time. It was a Best Hit squadron. The squadron had planned its best pilots for the first attack mission. When we arrived at the mission area, unfortunately, for reasons we did not know at the time, Kocatepe had sunk and Adatepe was on fire. The planes of our squadron were directed by the operations center to the attack boats in the area and targets in the harbor. Meanwhile, Koçak, who was hit by anti-aircraft fire during the attacks, was landed in Konya on Hastürk's arm. Selçuk Kiper was not so lucky; he had to jump on the return route. Unfortunately, the ropes of his parachute got tangled around his neck during this jump, and he was taken from the area where he jumped, seriously wounded, and brought to Ankara Gülhane Military Hospital. At this hospital, he underwent a successful treatment process and regained his health. 

Today, I wanted to tell you about the 191st Squadron Command and Cobras, and I also wanted to tell you about Mümtaz Tolluoğlu. Today is the anniversary of his death. On June 7, 2017, we sent him off to eternity, six years ago. I bow respectfully in front of the cherished memory of this legendary pilot, my esteemed flight instructor.