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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2028.PDF
h FLIGHT. JULY 14, 1938 ;:.:> ^ ^K ---^ If .r"-"iSt Trainer Harts bear the brunt of most of the intermediate instruction. A refuelling scene on the tarmac. can take up full work as a squadron officer. This is obviously a great economy of squadron time, and it means that if a surprise attack were launched on this country in the spring, it would not find our fighter and bomber squad rons unable to take the air as units to meet the emergency. Of course, the F.T.S. cannot cover flying-boat work at all, beyond teaching the management of twin engines, or the specialised work of array co-operation. The pilots for those two branches have to go on the special courses at Calshot and Old Sarum, and torpedo work also has to be learnt in the T.B. squadrons. That is inevitable. But whereas the F.T.S. formerly turned out only a pilot, it now turns out a Service pilot, who has learnt that the R.A.F. means a great deal more than mere flying. So far only the flying instruction at Hullavington has been described, but ground instruction goes on all through the course. A general idea may be given by stating the number of hours allotted to the various subjects during the whole course at No. g F.T.S. The education officer gives six hours' instruction, mostly in the first weeks of the course. This consists chiefly of mathematics, which the pupils will need in absorbing the other subjects. The armament officer has 45 hours at his disposal and the navigation officer 34. They arrange their times for lectur ing with the Chief Ground Instructor. Signals occupy 30 hours, -mostly taken up with buzzing. The pupils have been taught Morse at the civil elementary schools, and the standard of sending which is expected is eight words a minute. Drill is given 24 hours. Work on engines and airframes is taught by civilian instructors under the C.G.I., engines receiving 13 hours and airframes eight. Airman ship gets ten hours, administration and organisation eight, meteorology six, law and administration eight, and re connaissance three. In the intermediate term, as in the advanced term, there are three squads. One squad will do physical training from 07.30 to 08.00 hours; then breakfast, and lectures start at 09.00. Another squad on the same day falls in at 08.15 f°r colour-hoisting parade and drill till 09.00. The third squad is meanwhile flying. From 10.00 to 10.15 there is a break for all, and then the squads change over, No. 2 flying while Nos. 1 and 3 receive ground instruction. From 12.15 to 13.30 is the time for lunch. The afternoon work lasts from 13.30 to 16.30, and each afternoon (except Wednesdays and Saturdays) one squad spends the whole three hours flying, while the other two are instructed on the ground, changing subjects each hour. On Wednesday there are organised games, and everybody has to take some physical exercise, though the CO. of Hullavington allows individuals to follow their own bent to a very reasonable extent. For instance, if a man's favourite game is golf he is not obliged to play some team game which may bore him stiff. For the first three weeks of the course no leave is per mitted, but after that each squad in turn may have week end leave from Friday night to Sunday night. Pupils are allowed to dine out of mess once a week. An interesting rule is that permission must be obtained from the CO. before a car may be kept at the station. At the end of the intermediate term an examination is held, and each pupil must pass in his ground subjects be fore the C.F.I, will examine him for his wings. In four subjects, engines and airframes, drill, armament, and signals, the examinations are practical; in the others they are written. A pupil has to obtain 50 per cent, in each subject and Go per cent, on the whole examination in order to pass. In the advanced term, ground instruction is carried on, but less time is given to it, for, as mentioned above, in that term two squads are always flying while only one is working under the C.G.I. It is a strenuous course, strenuous for instructors as well as for pupils. Air Vice-Marshal Pattinson, A.O.C No. 23 (Training) Group (which includes the 10 F.T. Schools), admitted in his lecture to the Royal United Service Institution that they would be glad when the expansion was over and they could take things a little more easily. But the results are excellent and the squadron leaders are more than satisfied with the pilots now turned out. SAILPLANE CLOUD-FLYING (Continued pendently of these sensations and in obedience to the visual information supplied by one's instruments. Unfortunately, this immunity rapidly diminishes; indeed, to preserve it at the highest level I should think a polishing-up lesson at least once a month would be desirable. This is clearly beyond the spare time or pocket of most amateurs, and so it comes down rather drearily to this—that the highest sailplane performances can be obtained with the greatest possible degree of safety only by professional pilots. The amateur's best course is to have a blind-flying course at the most likely time of the year for big cloud formations, and hope to strike lucky in his sailplane after. front page c.) A Link Trainer at the gliding club has been suggested, but apart from the expense, it seems likely that the Link does not produce, and so cannot cure, the true-blue sensa tions of vertigo. If what I have written is taken as putting me into the don't-do-it class I would hastily correct that impression. I think the difficulties of this branch of sail-flying should make it all the more attractive to the true enthusiast, but the point one wants to drive home is that if these diffi culties are not appreciated—they are even frequently denied—they become dangers. And one hates the aunts being right.
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