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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2008.PDF
SEPTEMBER 24TH, 1942 SCHOOL Flying 1942. Two Spitfires and a Hurricane of E.C.F.S. in formation At the time of its inception all ab initio training was carried out at civil schools, and officers who applied to join what was then the new arm first went to one of these civil schools to learn how to fly. This amounted to little more than learning to take off, fly a figure-of-eight, and land a box kite with' a wing loading of about 3 lb. per sq. ft. Having satisfied the civilian authorities of their competency to fly, the pupils moved on to the Central Flying School of the Royal Flying Corps, where "wings" were granted, and then they became military or naval pilots. The first commanding officer of the school was Captain Godfrey Paine,* R.N., who later became an Air VTfce-Marshal, and his second-in-command was Major (now Lord) Trenchard. The outbreak of the 1914-18 war seriously affected the strength of the C.F.S., and new pilots had to be drained in large numbers. The civilian schools ceased.to function, and many of their instructors joined the Ser vice and carried on the same work in uniform. It was obvious that no one school, however big, would be able to handle the whole of flying training for the expansion of the air services, and a number of other flying training schools were started as off-shoots from the original unit. When this scheme had been in pro gress for some two or three years, the school at Upavon became a special ised unit for teaching air fighting, and was officially designated the Flying Training Establishment and Fighting School. This was found necessary^ because we were losing a considerable number of young pilots who had little or no knowledge of air-fighting tactics. The mantle of flying training then passed to the Special School of Flying at Gosport—commanded by Lt. Col. Smith-Barry—where the art of flying instruction was first systematised. Previously anyone calling himself a pilot was considered a fit person to train the next man and, consequently, there were as many methods of instruction as there were instruc tors. The Gosport school altered all. this, and while it was unable to train all the instructors needed to meet a war demand, it was able to train a sufficient number of them to pass on their, training to others. C.F.S. Resurrected At the close of hostilities Gosport closed down and the much reduced demands for pilots enabled the resurrected Central Flying School at Upavon to take up ordinary flying instruction again, with a proportion of ab initio training in addition. Freed from the stress of war, the flying- training programme was mapped out more clearly, with a number of F.T.S.s all employing C.F.S.-trained instruc tors. The first course for instructors under this system was held in 1920. A C.F.S. course has always been the coveted prize of a military pilot and, in the same way as a good " Martle- sham " report was the hall-mark of a good aircraft, so rm f Ai certificate from C.F.S. was the hall-mark of a super pilot. Representatives of more than twenty nations have "Flight" photograph. Air Commodore G. S. Oddie, D.F.C., A.F.C., Commandant of the School, watching the flying from the balcony of the control tower. " Flight" photograph, C.F.S. group on the occasion of a visit by Flight in 1914. Major (now Lord) Trenchard is the third from the right in the front row wearing the uniform of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was assistant commandant of the school.
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