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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2060.PDF
566 Topics of the Day FLIGHT OCTOBER IST, 1942 APTITUDE or APPLICATION? In Favour of the Slow Learner : Time as the Great Improver : The A.T.A. Shows Up the Medicos : Making the Most of Talent >r IN the matter of flying skill—if such a comparatively simple performance can be so described—time appears to be not so much the great healer as the great improver. So much so that I am now fairly well convinced that in nine out of ten cases those who take longest to learn turn out to be the best all-round pilots. Infuriating though it must be for the ab initio instructor to have to deal with someone who seems to be the very last word in unteachable morons, he may possibly be able to job for which the airline pilot is given two or three rings and the salary of a surgeon or a Cabinet Minister. And, in most cases, there is no reason why they should be any more important or well-paid; they have been trained by the Government and are either incapable or unwilling to do the much less pleasant and more responsible job of looking after some thousands of men or of organising the layout of a new camjjf or of planning a large-scale offen sive. Those are tja|r arduous jobs in wartime. I would comfort and strengthen hinsself with the knowledge that this— rather be a junior^officer in an aircraft than a senior officer poor stupid oaf of a pupil may eventually turn out to be the prize boy of the course Needless to say, this is on' generalisation ; there are people who are absoJ, incapable of learning anything that demands reactions and clear judgment. But the good iftstructo should be, able to tell the difference between ths? genuin hopeless case and the pupil who is worth a/little patience and time. The worthy duffer, foo^instance, habitually hold oft at ten feet and make tlf? piost stupend ous mess of his approaches, but he doesnyrc panic and, m< important still, can discuss his errors, /n that he is making them. The genuine/du in the dark the whole time. I think that the too-apt pupil mufct be fnosl watched. Like the infant prodigy, he very further, foi the good reason that he has never necessary to make an effort—and in all the later flying an effort as well as a comparatively high standard of intelligence are required. The bright young man who r polishing a seajjfor twelve hours a day, though it is a little ly "juniors" who have brought their ee to the Service. I know of two extreme cases in the R.A.F. to prove my point. One was a brilliant pupil erhaps a little too successful as a fighter pilot; all arduous studies and really learnt no more business of flying. Eventually he was taken, .1 reasons, off Ops., and found that he had no be scheme of things. I believe he is now a not cient instructor at an O.T.U. and is certainly anywhere. He avoids hard work, leaning on rels in the form of a now faded but well-deserved and, curiously enough, thinks he has learnt all 'ere is to learn about flying. The spoilt prodigy in person. Per Ardua The other was a fairly stupid pupil and, according to one of his flight commanders, was extremely " ham," even not his D. dashes into the air after about four hours' dual—or could-^->when he reached a squadron, breaking aircraft unneces if he was allowed to—just doesn't find it necessary to try and so loses the habit of trying. Like the young woman who is so naturally beautiful that she makes no effort to be interesting as a person and grows into rather a character less creature, while the not-so-good-looking woman knows that she has a lot of leeway to make up and is reaching her prime when the vacant beauty, if she hasn't already caught her man, is beginning to lose her grip—if she ever had anything but a superficial hold. Prodigies At one time or another I've met quite a number of"~" remarkable "natural" pilots who have taken to the air as some children take to the water. Hardly one of them has become in any way outstanding as a pilot, per se, though two or three have made magnificent fighting pilots. Yet I can think of dozens of very mediocre people who have gone all the way and are now first-class and really intelligent drivers of aircraft in a big way. Knowing their deficiencies, they Have used their brains to make up for these shortcomings, and have consequently gone a great . deal further in a modern flying world, where intelligence^ rather than sheer skill is required. It is difficult to pick out examples in the Air Force, because the Powers That Be are not looking only for the sort of ability which makes a good pilot, but are expecting a whole lot of other characteristics in their G.D. officers nr sergeant pilots. Quite a few of their most intelligent pilots are flying around m stooge jobs because their par ticular abilities are not needed. That's one of the unfor tunate features of war conditions; the poet remains a private, the artist an A/C.2, and the author an O.D. Their abilities are" not required during a war and they are being- horribly wasted (from the rational viewpoint) as mere fodder. The ability to fly any machine well and to get it where it is wanted is not very highly rated in the Service. There are plenty of sergeants and pilot officers doing the sort of sarily through sheer bad judgment. But he was a trier and as keen as possible. Now, six hundred hours later, he has got the sort of job which suits him and is by way of being rather a crack on everything from fighters to four- engined bombers. Heaven help him if he gets the idea that he's learnt everything and stops using the brains which have saved him and made him into a good above- average pilot. An organisation like the A.T.A. must carry dozens est*-"" people who, by sheer keenness and hard work, have made the pace. Most of the original crowd were well beyond the age which is supposed, so wrongly, to be the limit beyond which nothing can be learnt in this flying business. They joined this organisation because the Air Force had no use for them. At least half a dozen had even learnt to fly at quite an advanced age—as pilots' ages go—and ^ drifted vaguely about for years in often ill-conducted light aircraft. Yet when they were faced with more complicated military types they were duly humble and used their brains. Not one of them pretended that it was going to be an easy and pleasant job; they just got down to it, knowing their own weaknesses and with a good healthy^respect for the knobbly new types with which they were presented. One, who was practically turned down during the initial tests is now, I believe, on the Atlantic ferry service. Two or three others, who were given nothing more exciting than Tiger Moths and Magisters to fly for the first few month? of the war, were gradually encouraged into the seats of larger and larger machines until some reached the very top class. One or two were hurried on a little too fast, or were never really capable, temperamentally, of dealing with large types in difficult conditions, and accidents happened. But the general history of the A.T.A. proves that good, intelligent and mature people, however slowly they appear to be learning, get there in the end and can be very much more reliable than some of the brilliant pupils. And the women. They went through their novitiate of
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