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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0996.PDF
FLIGHT MAY 23RD, ACTUARIAL DIGRESSION in Scotland or Wales. Since weather questions will, there- fore, need more careful consideration, the saving in time may not, after all, be so very much greater. Everything points to the obvious need, before really fast transports can reasonably be put into regular opera- tion, of at least an equal advance in bad-weather arrival technique and in standards of navigational safety gener- ally. I do not suggest that these transports of the future will necessarily have very much higher approach and land- ing speeds than those to which we are at present ac- customed, but it may no longer be practicable to loiter at a stipulated height while waiting for a landing turn, or to make two or three abortive attempts at an approach. After loitering, say, for half an hour over the originally proposed arrival point, there might be inadequate range available to reach an alternative field. Recruiting for the It.A.I. Details of Peacetime Requirements of the Service AN announcement from the Air Ministry concerning RoyalAir Force recruiting requirements indicates that toL maintain an efficient and balanced Air Force, 100,000men on regular engagements arc needed by December 31st, 1946. This entails the enlistment from civil life of regularservicemen at a rate of 3,000 a week from now until the end of the year. Conscription alone cannot provide either theskill or the numbers required, and the length of training for many of the trades would make it uneconomical to use con-scripts; in addition, stability cannot be maintained when men are constantly changing. th a hundred separate tradesAt present there are moreopen to recruits from outside the Service or from amongthose who have served and have been released. The greatneed at present is for skilled or semi-skilled men for tech-nical and maintenance trades, and for men experienced orsuitable for training in the administration branch. Thosewho are only semi-skilled or even unskilled will be giventhe opportunity of training. Men with only elementary education can enlist as aircraft hands and may have a chancelater to receive training in a skilled trade. A two-fold recruit- ing plan has been devtsed. Under the extended service or "bounty" scheme, experi-enced men, either released or still serving, may re-engage for three or four more years, provided they have had two years'mobilized service, and later, if they wish, they may volunteer for long-term engagements. In addition, there is a sub-division of this scheme which will permit men already serving on a regular engagement which will not expire until the schemeis closed, to sign-on for a further three years' service with comparable gratuities.An initial bounty of ^25 and a terminal gratuity of £25 for each year of service will be granted to men enlisting underthis scheme, and at the end of their period of service they will receive a civilian suit and 28 days' leave, while those whoenlist prior to their release will receive immediately a civilian suit (or £&) and the equivalent to 56 days' release leave. The 100,000 men wanted by Dacember 31st, 1946. more than 100 trades open to recruits. £25 initial bounty and terminal gratuity of £25 for each year of service no definite age limit laid down for extended service engagement. qualification for a pension is 22 years or over. FAR EAST A.O.P.N O. 656 (Air O.P.) Squadron, R.A.F., now operating inJava, holds the distinction of having been the only squadron of its type ever to operate east of Calcutta. It hasbeen in action almost continually in its function of '' Air Observation Post," spotting for the artillery since the begin-ning of 1944, when it arrived in Burma. The squadron was formed at the end of 1942 at Bury St.Edmunds, disembarked at Bombay in September. 1943, and in January, 1944, moved into the area of the 14th Army. Withina few days the aircraft were in action, and when 114 Brigade was surrounded east of, the Kalapanzin, the Aus.ter was forten days its only link with Corps H.Q., Hying in operation orders and medical supplies daily. In April, 1944, the squadron inaugurated night observationnights with such success that, despite the lack of navigation lights or blind flying instruments on the aircraft, nnd landingstrips lit by hurricane lamps, they became a regular feature. By May, however, monsoon weather made forward stripsunusable even for Austers, and by June both " A" and "C" Flights had to be withdrawn. Not till August, however—whenthe fabric covering of the aircraft was rotting away with the continuous rain—did "B" Flight pull out of the ImphalValley. bounty and gratuities will not be subject to tax. For ex-tended service engagement there is no definite age limit laid down, but normally eligibility will be up to a man's 41stbirthday. Men who continue in or return to the Service under thescheme will be given the temporary rank they hold or held on discharge, and those returning to the Service will be consideredfor the grant of substantive rank after they have served for three months. Those who accept the scheme before release willbe considered for the grant of substantive rank immediately. The scheme for engagement from civil life is a continuationof the normal peacetime recruiting, and applications are sought from candidates aged 17J to33 years. They may enter as fully-skilled in a trade or assemi-skilled or unskilled to undergo training in any tradethey choose. The minimum periods of service for skilledground trades is 10 years' regular service and two yearson reserve, with the possi- bility of re-engagement tocomplete time fox a pension. For other trades, engagementis for five years, also with a possibility of extension for a pension. The qualification for apension is service for 22 years or over, and the amount of pen- sion varies according to rank and total length of service. Mencompleting 10 years' service will be eligible for a terminal gratuity of £50 and an annual gratuity of ^25 for each year ofsubsequent service up to a maximum of ^200, all being tax free. The new pay codes come into operation as from July 1st,and ground trades will be classified in four trade groups in- stead of six as at present. The wage offered is broadly equi-valent to that which would be expected from a similar job in civilian life, and particular advantages include 28 days'paid leave a year; free medical and dental attention; and special facilities for education and sport. Applications for aircrew are not required at the presenttime, and recruiting for R.A.F. Reserve Command, including the Volunteer Reserve, Auxiliary Air Force, A.T.C. and RoyalObserver Corps, will be undertaken as a separate commitment for which details will be announced later. By mid-November the squadron was in action over a 320-mile front, supporting every division of 14th Army and 15 Corps, and by May it had flown 6,712 sorties in 5,708 flyinghours, and spotted for 2,870 "shoots," many of which would have been impossible or useless with ground observation alone. WOMEN IN WAR ON Wednesday, May 8th, Miss Pauline Gower, M.B.E., pre-viously in charge of the women's section of the A.T.A.. told the London Branch of the Women's Engineering Societythe story of the A.T.A. and of the "battle for recognition" fought on behalf of women pilots. At first, even after thepoint had been conceded, only a few women pilots were admitted to the A.T.A., but, as the need for ferry pilots increased, theirnumbers steadily rose and they were eventually allowed to ferry not only fighter and medium bomber aircraft but even fourengined bombers—-complete, sometimes, with a woman flight engineer. • Miss Gower disclosed the fact that when aircraft were desperately needed for Malta, it was the Women's Ferry Pool a; Hamble which rushed some 90 per cent of the machines to thewaiting aircraft carriers, on which they were taken to tin island. She added that an average of twenty women pilotsat Hamble had ferried 23,000 aircraft in four years.
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