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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0382.PDF
236 FLIGHT MISSION TO INDIA gation-Signal School which has recently been formed by the R.I.A.F. at Tambaram, near Madras. This station was previously operated by the Royal Navy and has since been used as a dump for unused transport. Until flying is possible there, and aircrew and aircraft have been pro- vided, the navigation pupils are to be sent to England for their practical training. But a group of instructors, trained by the E.A.N.S. at Shawbury, is already hard at work instilling the groundings of navigation knowledge into the chosen pupils. Incidentally, and contrary to previous R.I.A.F. practice, these pupils are not commis- sioned until they have passed their preliminary examina- tion.' How soon Tambaram will revert to its active flying status remains to be seen, but St. Thomas Mount, where we landed in the Halifax, was due to be handed over more than a month ago, lock, stock and barrel, to the civil operators. Deccan Airways and Air-India, alias Tata's, already operate from there, while a nourishing local club, with ten or so Tiger Moths, has been in action since/fcre-7 war days. This club, like the others in India, is subsidia for the benefit of trainees under the age of twenty-eight- in other wordst for those who are likely to be useful in case of emergency or Air Force expansion. The rates, conse- quently, for pupils under this age are Rs.15 (approxi- mately £1 2s), and, for other pupils, Rs.30 per hour. The airline operators at St. Thomas Mount are not particularly happy about the use of this airfield as a club centre, the more so as the Tigers must necessarily use the grass while landing and taking off into wind while larger aircraft are using the runways. The Air Navigation School The Navigation-Signal School was formed early in Sep- tember last year, with an establishment of twenty-six officers. The first course, consisting of nine officers and nineteen of the new class of officer-cadets, arrived ten days later from Bhopal, where training had been started. The present CO. of the School, S/L. V. S. C. Bonerjee, arrived early in the following month, and '' Stage A ''— which consisted of a preliminary excursion into navigation technique—was duly completed with all the cadets obtain- ing passes. Foi the second stage, during which more serious navigation instruction was to be given, three instructors arrived from Shawbury after completing the Advanced Navigation Course there. Although the School is now in fairly complete working order, there are, as already explained, no flying facilities, and the camp generally is somewhat scattered, with the living quarters quite a fair bicycle ride from the training area. Here the most attractive section is that for radar work, and the equipment includes a Gee trainer. Presumably this method of radar naviga- tion will appear again in India, though for the moment the transmitting stations erected and operated during the war have been closed down. As far as practical training work is concerned, the eventual idea is to purchase some Avro 19s, but even if the aircraft were available there would certainly be difficulty in finding the necessary- ground staff to maintain them. The centres for flying training of R.I.A.F. personnel in India are at Jodh- pur (E.F.T.S.) and Ambala (S.F.T.S.). Since ab initio pilots are not likely to be particularly interested in, or particularly ready to receive information about modern navigational methods, the former was not included in the mission's itiner- ary. But we put in, for an all-too-short twenty-four hours, at Ambala, which lies f '•--•-. .. .)> ' Flight " Copyright . The route followed by the E.A.N.S. Halifax during its stayin India. :-.« ijfBtfjjg-Iff '"Mffi^ " Flight " photograph AT TAMBARAM : F/L. Barrett, one of the navigation instructors with theMission, talks to pupils and instructors at the Navigation-Signal School, the equipment of which includes a Gee trainer.
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