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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1561.PDF
184 FLIGHT Formation exercises art important items both in the Spitfire and the Vampire schedules. REFRESHING EXPERIENCE Holiday Atmosphere at a Service Flying School: A Visit to No. 102 F.R.S. IAST week we visited R.A.F. Station, North Luffen-hanij near Oakham, Rutland, until recently a TransportCommand station, but now the home of No. 102 •Flying Refresher School. One hesitates to make a pun, but visiting the School genuinely was a refreshing experience : everyone was happy and quite evidently enjoying himself, and although all the men on the course have to work fairly hard, the work is chiefly flying and, in that all of them are flying enthusiasts, the total effect is to give the station an aura of happiness and keenness which is exceedingly rare. No. 102 F.R.S. is one of the units of the newly-formed No. 25Group, Flying Training Command, which controls advanced flying schools and was established to help cater for the largeintake of pupil-pilots required under the R.A.F. expansion pro- gramme. Commanded by G/C. R. A. Ramsay Rae, O.B.E.,North Luffenham, together with No. 103 F.R.S. at Full Sutton, near York, has the task of providing an intensive flying refreshercourse for members of the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve who have been called back into the Service for a three months' period ofcontinuous training. The whole three months is, however, not spent at NorthLuffenham or Full Sutton. Before going to either of these Schools, the recalled "V.R." spends six weeks at Oakington or Ternhill,where he puts in 40 hours on Harvards. Having become thoroughly familiar with something a bit bigger and heavier than aTiger or Chipmunk, the man then goes to North Luffenham or Full Sutton for the remaining six weeks of his three months. Onarrival, he is given a routine dual check on a Harvard, and then goes into No. 1 Squadron (S/L. B. J. Jennings, D.F.M.) whichis equipped with Spitfire 22s. He spends three weeks in No. 1 Squadron, during which time he has to put in 20 hours on theSpitfire, and then transfers to No. 2 Squadron (S/L. I. D. Bourne) for the final three weeks; No. 2 is equipped with Vampire 5s, andeach pupil is required to do 15 hours in these aircraft. The aim of the Flying Refresher School is to ensure that pilotsknow the basic facts of the flying technique and engine handhng of jet aircraft and, in addition, possess a working knowledge ofradio aids, current R/T procedures, and Fighter Command methods of control. It is, of course, not possible in so short aperiod as six weeks to train the V.R. pilots up to full operational standard. No gunnery training is given, neither do the pupilsfly at night. What the School does—and, apparently, does ex- ceedingly well—is to provide an intermediate step toward first-line squadron standard. Not all of the pupils are ex-fighter pilots—although, naturally, these predominate—but no matterwhether wartime experience was with heavies, mediums, fighters or boats, each student seems equally enthusiastic about flyingjet aircraft. Each squadron is divided into two flights, and as a result ofthe intensive nature of the course, flying starts at about 0630 hr and continues until as late as 2100 hr. To this end, the flightswork in 24-hour relays; that is to say, Flight A will, for example, fly from 1200 today until 2100 tonight, and again from 0630tomorrow morning until 1200 tomorrow, whereupon the aircraft will be taken over by Flight B for a similar cycle. The patentefficiency of the flying organization is in no small measure due to the CO. of the Flying Wing, W/C. C. D. Tomalin, D.F.C.,A.F.C. Whilst in the Spitfire squadron, the student carries out 12 exercises as follows: familiarization—climbs and descents, turnsstalling, circuits and landings, one hour; circuits, landings and overshoots, one hour; applied circuits—short take-offs and land-ings, bad-weather circuits, Sapless landings, one hour; stalling, steep turning, G.C.I, fixes, map reading, QGHs (two sorties) twohours; climb to 15,000ft., steep turns and aerobatics (two sorties) two hours; precision flying clear hood, G.C.A., one hour; climbto 25,000ft., steep turns and aerobatics (two sorties), two hours; instrument/cloud flying, one hour; low-flying, one hour; low-level cross-country (maximum height 500ft), one hour; medium- level cross-country at 15,000ft. to land and refuel away from base,two hours; formation at various altitudes (five sorties), five hours. To complement the flying training, each pupil attends lec-tures to a total of 19! hours. In addition, it is required that each student should put in a minimum of four hours on the Linktrainer. The detail of air exercises for the Vampire squadron is essen-tially similar to that undertaken by the Spitfires, but the sortie time is somewhat reduced. The exercises are: familiarization—climbs and descents, turns, stalling, engine handling, circuits and landings, 40 minutes; circuits, landings, rollers and overshoots,40 minutes; applied circuits—glide approaches, flapless landings, bad-weather circuits, 40 minutes; climbs to various altitudes,aerobatics, steep turns to Mach 0.7 (four sorties) two hours 40 minutes; climb to 30,000ft., steep turns, QGHs (two sorties). The men who flew the aircraft in the top picture: F/0 L S. T. fjl. T. Williamson (instructor) and F/0. D. K. A. Bradshaw.
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