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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1385.PDF
JULY 2ND, 1942 f £ / GLIDER TRAINING the pupils. The instructors are all expert glider pilots who have joined the R.A.F. Some are officers and the rest are sergeants. Some of their names were famous in gliding circles, and indeed throughout the country, before the war for having made outstanding flights, either of extraordinary duration, of unusual altitude, or of remarkable distances covered. The pilot who took me up for a flight in a glider •during my visit to the school had achieved a record for Great Britain a few years before the war. He wore spectacles, which are not usually seen on a man with pilot's wings—but what of that? His outstanding ability had been amply proved. Two main things have to be learnt at these schools First, the man must learn to fly on tow, which is not just as easy as guiding a towed motor car. In the second place he must learn to be unerring in making his approach and landing, for if the pilot of a glider misjudges, he gets no second chance. In addition, a certain amount of night flying is done at the school. The Later Stages The next stage is with a Glider Operational Training Unit, and there the pilot, now adorned with "wings" of a special pattern, which includes a golden lion, does more dual, especially when he takes up real troops for the first few times. He flies the same training type of glider with which he had become familiar at the G.T.S., but he makes wider use of it, landing on strange fields, doing more night ••* Hying, and also enduring long tows of about 150 miles. This last is quite an exhausting ordeal. One imagines it would also be very boring for the troops inside the fuselage. In short, the pilot learns to use his glider, which previously he had only learnt to fly. Finally, the pilot goes back to his own Service, the Army, and is employed as the Air-borne Division thinks best. He is made familiar with different parts of the country, and works with various categories of troops. At the G.T.S. it is fascinating to watch the routine. The power machines, known as the " tugs," are flown by ordin ary R.A.F. pilots, and they find their job most monotonous. They deserve sympathy, and also admira tion, for they do good and necessary work. After the glider pilot has dropped his end of the towing cable, the tug has to fly round and drop the whole cable on a certain part of the flying field, where a trailer picks up all the cables. They are then tested and rewound on drums. When a glider has landed, a caterpillar tractor rolls out to it and tows it back to the starting line. A caterpillar tractor is used for towing the gliders to their starting point. >r Hectoring a glider might be an appropriate title for this picture, taken from the " tug.'' When I was there a fine display of formation flying by six tugs with gliders was given, the whole effect being something like a cat's cradle. The six tugs took off in line, but soon changed to very correct echelon. The gliders kept slightly above the slip-stream. To a passenger in a glider the motion felt rather jerky until all the cables were cut off simultaneously at the firing of a Very light. After casting off the tows, three of the gliders made a sensa tional dive, disappeared behind a hedge, and then hopped over the hedge to land in perfect line. The other three made a normal gliding approach. It was a most impressive display.
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