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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0586.PDF
478 FLIGHT APRIL 29TH, CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not held himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. R.A.F.V.R. Splitting the Fifteen Bays' Training you please find a small space to publish this letter'"• for me, as I feel it is needed ? I feel that the R.A.F.V.R. is now getting more and moredisorganized on the administrative side as time goes on. In the first place, it took me four to five months to be accepted;mine, of course, will not be the only case. When eventually 1 was accepted, I explained that I should find difficulty incompleting fifteen days' training. So it was suggested to me that it could be split up into shorter periods, i.e., seven aadeight-day periods. This I thought a good idea, and have now completed the eight-day period. The pay for the fifteen daysis full R.A.F. pay plus allowances; this, I was given to under- stand, also applied if I split it up into the periods suggestedto me. However, now I ana told I only qualify for 9s. a day, as this is a new order which came oat while I was on training,and I was never informed of it. I left my work for a week in order to do this training,expecting at least to cover expenses for this week. I am married and have a child, which means one cannot live on 9s. a day.I very much enjoyed the eight days' training, and am only sorry I cannot afford to do the other seven days now. Trusting this letter may put others wise to "the facts of thisfifteen days' training, and also hoping the right persons- may trouble to read this. "BROKE."Cambridge. Conditions of Service 'T'O supplement the able review of the Royal Air Force •*• Volunteer Reserve and its problems, 'presented in yoar April 8th issue following correspondence which has appeared on this subject, the following summary of the conditions of R.A.F.V.R. service generally may help to clarify some of the more detailed enquiries made by your readers. Pilots: 1. Recruiting is open to alt ex-Service pilots who obtained their wings. Navigators and Signallers: .1. Navigators and signallers are now being recruited at six Reserve Flying Schools—Pans- hanger, Fairoaks, WqjxUey, Hamble, Rochester and Perth, 2. Those eligible as navigators are all ex-aircraft navigators who qualified in the Services in navigator trades. 3. Signallers are being recruited from ex-R.A.F. wireless- operator or signaller aircrew personnel who hava ..already qualified in these trades. •"•••-. W.A.A.F. /R. (Flying) : 1. Women pilots are Bfeisg recruited at all flying schools. ' '"*' .t • 2^ They are required to have had at least 100 sola hours. General. Training: 1. a minimum of 40 hours' flying is carried out yearly, 20 hours at week-ends, during evenings, etc., and 20 hours during continuous training periods. 2. Continuous training totals r5 days and may be., commuted wholly or in part into an equivalent amount of non-eaHtinwjas training, at the discretion of the Command. _. • * ' 3 Non-continuous training comprises 20 hours' Link Trainer, 20 hours' allowance for briefing and waiting time in regard to the 20 hours' non-continuous flying training, and a maxi- mum of 70 hours' lectures, as required, annually. Pay, Expenses and Allowances: 1. An annual flying train- ing bounty is paid flying personnel: — R.A.F.V.R.— Pilots and Navigators £35 (tax free) Signallers £30 (tax free) •W.A.A.F. IR.— Pilots £25 (tax free) 2. Pay and married allowances at current R.A.F. orW.A.A.F. rates are granted during continuous training periods in excess of 48 hours. 3. A tax-free training expense allowance of is 6d an houris given during non-continuous training. 4. Travelling expenses are met for all duty attendances.Motor Vehicle Licences and Insurances: 1. Motor vehicles used solely for duty attendances can be licensed and insuredfree by a State " G " licence. Motor Vehicle Petrol and Mileage Allowances: 1. Petrolcoupons are provided for duty attendances where public trans- port is not practicable 2. A mileage allowance of 3d a mile, plus \d a mile for aduty passenger or passengers, is given for dtity attendances. Age Limits: The normal age limit is 30, but suitable candi-dates may be accepted above this age. Engagement: 1. The normal period of engagement is fiveyears, but consideration is given to an individual's special circumstances and wishes. There remain one or two points to answer in regard tomatters of policy. As pointed out in your article, the provision of more advanced types of aircraft is difficult if only fromthe point of view of the servicing required. Meanwhile, the Tiger Moth provides the opportunity for the maximum numbt^of pilots to "keep their hands in." The Ansons available aiX for training navigators and signallers only and will be fullyoccupied in this work. Recruiting of ground crew, to answer another point, willbegin sBoftly at some centres, but facilities have to be pro- vided for training them,. The suggestion that National Servicemight be commuted into five years' V.R. service (and ab initio training gives) runs contrary to the intentions of the Govern-ment in the National Service Act. Natkmal Service" cannot, under any guise, be served; ran a territorial or local basis. Canteens are already being ©cgamized caa a "social club"basis and tbe R.A.F. s>pkit is, foesag eneaoiragefi and fosieied as much as possible. Transport, it is ieaHaedr is eitten^a vexed problem, ftnd areservist's enthusiasm may well be scwelY taxed at tildes. It is hoped, however, that these diffieutMies wjitt be overcome vatime. In concraskm, I woeW Kke to point oat that the R.A.F.V.R.,after one year of initial recruiting,,, is rajpidly approaching half- strength in- frying persommel and the curve is still upwards.A number of schools are within sight of their full complement of R.A J.V.R. plots. L. M. MACBRIDE, O.B.E., Air Miaistrv, Whitehafi. Chief Information Officer. CIVIL AVIATION ^ . .". Present Troubles a Passing Phase -•i'----? HAVING read Mr. Matheson's letter in Flight of April _8th,and also yoar comments, I would Eke to express my views on this urgent matter. To everyone—like Mr. Matheson amialso to Robert Calling and his ''Casual Commentary," who would like to. see aviation degraded to the level of being a" useful though, extravagant means of transport"—I address ttois letter. These people and others' thoroughly dishearten meaad represent a complete lack at the old pioneering spirit, and atmosphere o£- progress. * On,the black side of civil aviation, I quite agree that weacre having a stormy financial crisis, accompanied by a lack of efficient organization; and also, though more rarely, a blacklist of accidents. On these we may all agree, but, and this is my point, is there any. need to lose heart and to look on airtransport as. ''unsound in principle," as Mr. Matheson puts it? Ind-eed not; when the pioneers met a difficulty, did theylose heart and "pack vrp? Certainly not, for if they had, when* would aviation be to-day? This moral applies to all humanprogress, for no sphere' oi achievement or progress can have a land of milk'and honey without a-fight. ' There have also, as Flight puts it, always been those whobemoan progress—-yes, quite true, and even now, after watching the growth of railways, cars, buses, etc, we ca"%-«till find the" bemoaners "—in this case sabotaging ojKpaper arid in their minds the progress of the world's youngest and rnrtSr rapidform of transportation, air travel. - • ' " To back up my allegations, perhaps it would dt> these .peoplewho look on the black side, when the opportunity arises, good to look at the credit side of air transport. Against the gloomybackground of financial awl spiritual loss. aad; occasional accidents we can range the great expansion in air travel wehave so recently witnessed. The world is indeed now crossed and spanned by the greatest system of air routes ever known.More people than ever before now use this, the supreme form of travel, and—-and .this is my second point—this is only abeginning—a prelude to the day when mass air travel for even7 person on earth who wants it becomes a reality. That day,Mr. Matheson and Robert CarKng, is in the making—going through its teething troubles admittedly, bat event nowshewing the world its value. Air travel is here, and here in a big, practical warr and
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