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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1889.PDF
SEPTEMBER IOTH, 1942 FLIGHT 279 consists mostly of handling the Hotspur gliders, both •lightly and fully loaded. After each flight the glider ( has to be towed back across the airfield by tractor and hitched on to a tug aircraft again. Obviously, the fre quency of circuits is much lower than when instruction on power machines is taking place. In the senior course the pupil is taught the employ ment of both high and low approaches, formation- flying while in tow and while free, and glider-piloting at night. On the face of it it would appear that formation flying on gliders would be a very ragged business, since one cannot give a burst of throttle to catch up if left behind. Instead, however, the tech nique is to keep well forward and use the flaps rather in the manner of a reversed throttle to keep station. * All the while these two courses are being taken, power-flying goes on in Miles Masters lis used for towing, in D.H. Tiger Moths for navigation, and in Airspeed Oxfords for map-reading. This map-reading is of particular im portance because on operations the glider pilot will be expected to put his troops down in the exact field designated. Esprit de Corps Nearly all the pupils are soldiers who have at one time or another applied for transfer to the Royal Air Force. Hav ing come from the somewhat dull routine of the ground army, and feeling themselves (rightly so) to be now of the elite, they are extremely keen. Soldiers of any rank, commissioned or non-commissioned, may apply for transfer to glider pilotage, but the majority come direct from the ranks. Privates accepted for training are given the rank of corporal, which is the equivalent of leading aircraftman in the R.A.F., and they get their third stripe on attaining their wings in the Army •^Air Corps. All the instructors are Royal Air Force personnel,^chosen with that carefulness which has always characterised the selection of R.A.F. instructors. All hold C.F.S. certificates and have had short extra courses to accustom them to what they term '' string and silence." From the instructor's point of view the job holds a good deal more interest than is usually asso ciated with flying training. They get spells of work with both the junior and senior courses, and a fair pro- The pilots of the Miles Master II tug aircraft are specially posted for the job, and the Army glider trainees get plenty of power-flying in the rear seat. (Top) A glider pilot must know how to load his aircraft without getting his weights too far forward or aft of the centre of lift. The photograph shows an instructor demonstrating how to size off a load of- troops. (Bottom) Towing gliders by tractor back to the take-off point. This is the most tedious part of glider-pilot training. portion of power-flying on Tigers and Oxfords. In addition, if they feel so disposed, they can do a spell of towing on the Master lis, but normally this work is done by tug pilots specially posted for the job. Changing Technique Large, medium and small gliders all have to be handled, and like any other new arm developed in the stress of war, the tactics and technique of glider opera tion are continually being altered and developed. We are already a considerable way along the road, but there is still plenty of scope on the instructional side for men of original thought before the whole business settles down to the constraint of a textbook training. Troop-carrying by glider has undoubtedly come to stay and is one of the novel, and at the same time most effective, features of modern war. With the rapid de velopment likely to come about, airborne and air-sup plied troops will probably have more effect than even the tank in rendering static defence lines useless.
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