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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1887.PDF
SEPTEMBER IOTH, T942 FLIGHT 277 A lidQK-Pilot TkuML Teaching Soldier Pilots of the Army Air Arm : New Interests for Flying Instructors in Handling Technique (Illustrated by " Flight" Photographs) ,'•* AIRBORNE troops are of three sorts—paratroops, J~\ troops transported by multi-seater aircraft, and those carried in towed gliders. For the first two categories normal pilotage by R.A.F. pilots alone is involved, but for towed gliders the soldiers themselves must be at the controls. In an action employing troop- carrying gliders there is no room for passengers, the pilot or pilots must be soldiers as well as airmen. Bearing in mind the tasks which con front the British Army to-day, it is obvious that enormous numbers of glider pilots will be required. Already a considerable body of men are fully trained and ready for action, but there is no limit to the numbers which will be wanted. When the demand for glider pilots was first made, the authorities of Flying Training Com mand got in touch with some of the people who spent their peacetime leisure at gliding clubs, and from these people was formed an instructional nucleus. Landing Technique Lest any confusion should arise, it , should be remembered that troop -carrier gliding is not in any way com parable with the sitting of a sailplane on a jet of rising, air or hurrying from «ne up-current to another. It is much more akin to making a dead-stick land ing on power aircraft which may vary in size from an A.W. Whitley to a Douglas D.C.4. Since what the pupils have to learn is really a form of specialised forced-landing technique, they all go through a slightly modified course at an Elementary Flying Training School where extra stress is laid on approaches, An R.A.F. Flight Commander goes over the cockpit drill with a pupil. Army airmen all wear crash helmets when flying. The
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