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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1752.PDF
420 FLIGHT OCTOBER 9TH, Instructing in India that he move his head over to the left. He did, and I was confronted with the huge rear end of the drogue completely filling my sight! 1 pushed frantically on the stick and we managed to scrape underneath, but it was a lot too close for comfort. From then on I always made sure of a com- plete view of everything that was going on, no matter how many times I had to remind the pupils about their head position. There was another pupil who proved far too obliging in this head matter. I could not at first carry out my attacks because his large skull completely blocked my view. I pleaded with him, I cajoled him, I bellowed at him, and finally he looked round at me with a great light in his eye. He had gathered what I wanted. His head was in the way. Very well, he must remove it. Without a fur- ther moment's delay, he dropped his seat to the lowest position in the bottom of the cockpit, dis- appearing completely from view. There he" stayed, un- able to see through his own sight and indeed unable to see out of the cockpit at all. Try as I would I could not persuade him to come up again. The air to ground firing range was set in the foothills of the Khyber about JO miles away from the airdrome. The instructor who was sent out to it, or to the nearby bombing range, as range safety officer, frequently had a somewhat difficult time with local tribesmen who insisted on standing dangerously close to the target area in order to collect cartridge cases, spent shells and bomb fragments. On the bombing range they had been known to stand right on the target waiting for their precious scraps of metal. But after all, judging by some of the results, they were perhaps on the safest spot for miles around! I have particularly fond memories of ifae pupil who apparently wanted to add to the mass of alals already in the cockpit. After being briefed for air to ground firing he was seen to be wandering around the flight office with a very puzzled look on his face. Finally he plucked up ciency and that the finish of his ammunition would probabl coincide with the moment his guns stopped firing. A bouquet should also have gone to another of the pupik for knowing how to squeeze just that extra ten to fifteen miles an hour out^of an aircraft. He was on a low-level tactical reconnaissance with an instructor acting as h' number two. The instructor, despite fine pitch, wide open throttle and much cursing, only just managed to keep the pupil in sight, and on return to the airdrome desired to know why the pupil had roared round the countryside at such enormous speed. The pupil looked puzzled for a moment, and then brightlj\responded, "Oh, I know, sir I was flying slightly nose down! '' But the palm for in- genuity must go to one of the Sikh pupils. On a dual aerobatic check he flicked while doing a roll, and com- menced to spin down towards the ground. He made an effort to recover from the spin, and finally the in- structor took over and pulled the machine out. "What did you think you were do- ing? " he bellowed down the inter-com. answer: '' Downwardhesitation came theWithout any rolls, sir t" Flying Control, too, provided us with occasional amuse- ment. When Spitfires were still something of a novelty at the O.T.U. a pupil, gaming Spit experience, called up to say he could not lower his undercarriage. The flying con- trol officer, who had specially briefed himself on Hurricane cockpit drill, thought he was equal to the emergency. " Right," said he. "Select down, and then use the pump handle in your cockpit." As the only handle in the cockpit of the Spitfire we were flying raised and lowered the seat, the vision of the pupil pumping himself up and down in an endeavour to lower the undercarriage rather tickled us. On another occasion a bright young flying control man answered an enquiry on the 'phone about the arrival of two Expeditors. "No," he said, "they haven't come in yet—but hang on a moment, old man. There's a Dakota coming in now. Perhaps they'll be on it! " Presumably he thought Expeditors were high-ranking officials, coming in to stir things up a bit at the station. In March of 1946 the O.T.U., by then converted enough courage to approach the flight commanded '•'fftff'K en"*-irely to Spitfires, moved from Peshawar to Ambala to sir," he said, " there is no indicator in the^cockpit\d*1!fflo«^rcombine with the S.F.T.S. The title of the unit was pro- you when your ammunition is finished L'^.When the Jlight wisionally changed to Advanced Flying School, while commander had recovered his poweFliS, speeek-Jjefa^iu\ed . the S.F.T.S. became known as an Initial Training School. the pupil that he need-T^bt worry undjAf arfcuifthis defi- Flying Control probably did not appreciate the move •* *«» - jQr jt increased their problems immensely. They were faced with the prospect of pupils carrying out solo experience on Harvards, being chased round the circuit by pupik airborne for the first time in Spitfires. As a solution, it was decided that the run- way should be used only by the Spitfires, and the grass only by the Harvards, and although at first it was some what frightening to find one- self turning inside a Harvard making a '' bomber '' ap- proach, the two-channel sys- tem worked quite well. There were occasional pretty nre- THE O.T.U. INSTRUCTORS : (Left to right) F/0. L A. Smith, D.F.M., F/L N. Machon, F/0. D. Allen, work displays from ' « F!0. W. /. MacDonald, W/C. R. A. Chapman, S/L R. Newbery, D.F.C. and Bar, F/L Woodbridge, A.C.P., but on the wnoie u, FjO. Vickers, F/L Hillier, F/0. J. Fawcett, F/0. Standish. F/L N. Edwards, F/0. R. Horseley. ing continued smoothly.
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