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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0480.PDF
FLIGHT, MAY 20, 1932 A FORMATION OF AIRCRAFT TYPES USED FOR INSTRUCTION AT THE CENTRAL FLYING SCHOOL : From left to right, Gamecock, Atlas, Moth, III.F, Avro-Lynx, Siskin and Bulldog. (FLIGHT Photo.) Training of Pilots ernd Instructors* By GROUP CAPTAIN J. E. A. BALDWIN, D.S.O., O.B.E. WISH to make it quite clear that any opinion expressed in this lecture is merely a personal opinion, and does not tend in any way to express the official view. As a serving officer it has been necessary for me to obtain permission to give this lecture, and a copy of the proposed lecture has been submitted to the authorities, but this in no way implies that they are in agreement with the opinions expressed in the lecture. The necessity for a standard method of instruction in flying cannot be over-emphasised and is, I submit, equally necessary in civil flying. The public cannot yet be said to be fully alive to the possibilities of aviation, and there fore flying instruction and flying generally must be con sidered to be still in the development stage. In any new venture in its development stage " safety first " is a factor of primary importance. Every year the number of miles liown steadily increases, and it is only natural that the total number of casualties should, to some extent, increase. It is impossible to impress this on the public as the existing Air Lines and the number of hours flown are not nearly so easily impressed on the mind as, for example, the length of railway lines in existence, nor is the average pedestrian likely to notice the increase in the number of aircraft using the sky (unless he has the misfortune to live near an aerodrome) in the same way as he will actually notice the increase of motor transport on the roads. He is much more inclined to notice the total number of casualties given in the daily Press and to consider that flying remains as dangerous as ever. It is therefore obvious that the first essential to popularise flying is a really sound system of instruction in the art of flying. In dealing with the evolution of flying instruction I have divided this into three periods: — (a) The method employed in pre-Gosport times. (b) The Gosport or Smith-Barry method. (c) The present-day method. Early or pre-Gosport Instruction This really includes all instruction up to the summer of 1917. It was a period during which, to all intents and purposes, there was no true method of instruction, pupils * Paper read before the Royal Aeronautical Society on May 5, 1932. being more or less self-taught. The novice was given experience as a passenger and in taxying his aircraft, e.g., Bleriot-Penguin. After this the pupil was told to carry out a straight flight or hop, and when considered proficient on these was allowed to carry out a circuit. During this period of learning to fly by pre-Gosport method it is fortunate that only slow aircraft were employed. With the advent of the Maurice Farman, of the Long or Shorthorn type and the 50 Avro, dual control was introduced, and a pupil was, to some extent, given a smattering of instruc tion as to how the controls worked. Any pupil who could make five landings without interference from his instructor was allowed to go solo. He was taught practically nothing further and had to learn the rest himself. No such thing as advanced dual was given unless the pupil crashed. Gosport or Smith-Barry Method This system embodied the realisation that dual instruc tion with adequate communication between instructor and pupil was essential. In the words of Smith-Barry: " The chief thing necessary in flying instruction is dual control." Dual control has been employed to teach every manoeuvre ; flying in a wind, landing and getting off across wind, spinning, etc. The next most important thing is that quite half the dual is administered after the pupil has gone off solo, as until a pupil has himself practised a given thing he will not appreciate the details that are shown him. Bad habits are also corrected before they have had time to become fixed. This advanced dual, as it is now called, may be put down as the salient feature of the Smith-Barry system. Another innovation was that pupils were allowed to fly exactly as they chose and were not warned against doing certain evolutions which might land them in diffi culties. They were encouraged to try out a manoeuvre and when by incorrect use of the controls they got into difficulties, they were shown how to get out. This was the other great innovation ; after being shown how to get out of a difficult and previously considered dangerous position, the pupil was sent up again to repeat the process alone, and, in the words of Smith-Barry, if the pupil considers this dangerous let him find some other occupation : in other words, a person cannot be taught to fly by merely being taught to avoid doing certain movements. Another great difference was that instructors now taught pupils from 448
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