FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0531.PDF
527 FLIGHT 24 April 1953 "Flight" photographs CRANWELL PARADE: (Top left) The cadet wing in close column at the end of the slow march-past. The Colour can be discerned in the centre. (Top right) A general view of the parade in front of the main entrance to the College. (Lower left) Prizewinners: Sen. FjCdt. G. S. Turner (Fellowes Memorial), Sen. FjCdt. P. J. Goodall (R.U.S.I. Award and Air Min. Imperial and War Studies Prize), FjCdt. U.Off. J. D. Leary (Sassoon Memorial), FjCdt. U.Off. P. L. Gray (Sword of Honour and Chance Memorial), F/Cdt. Sgt. R. J. Roberts (Queen's Medal), F/Cdt. U.Off. W. J. Hodgkinson (Medal of Honour), FjCdt. Sgt. W. Topping (Groves Memorial). (Right) Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh P. Lloyd presents the Sword of Honour to FjCdt. U.Off. Gray. SERVICE AVIATION . . . EMPHASIS OxN FLYING—BY SIR HUGH P. LLOYD A BITTERLY cold north-east wind accompanied by rain and hail marred the passing-out parade at the R.A.F. College, Cranwell, on Tuesday of last week. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, however, the parade was quite up to (and perhaps even better than) the usual high standard. The Entries passing-out were No. 58 Entry (General Duties) and No. 9 Entry (Equipment and Secretarial). The reviewing officer was Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh P. Lloyd, K.C.B., K.B.E., M.C., D.F.C., LL.D., and for him personally the occasion was also in the nature of a passing-out parade : only the previous Wednesday he had given up his post as A.O.C.-in-C. Bomber Command, and retired from the Royal Air Force. In his speech to the cadets he stressed the importance of taking every opportunity to fly—or making opportunities if they did not occur of themselves. Putting emphasis on the word "flying," he said: "Behind every pilot in our Service there are 400 people on the ground and all of them have but one object in view—flying. "I want to place emphasis on that word because nowadays we live so close to aero planes that we may well tend to overlook the vital importance of flying." The cadets of the E. and S. Branches he also adjured to fly, asking them "to take as much pride in a flying task well done as the aircrew themselves. ... I say that be cause you will never do your job as well as you should unless you fly. . . . In the air you will share some of the discomforts and hazards of your colleagues as well as the achievement and exhilaration and intense satisfaction of flying." He then stressed four points. "My first," he said, "is that all good airmen are en thusiasts. They tackle their flying with determination, zest and energy. They have an urge to fly and flying is a pleasure. Do remember that when flying ceases to be a pleasure, the urge to fly has gone also. Once that urge has gone, and regardless of experience and rank and appointment at the time, a very important quality as an air man has gone with it and thereafter we are only of hmited use to the R.A.F. I must emphasise that by flying I mean as captain of the aircraft." Sir Hugh then spoke of the importance of keeping up flying—a subject of which he is an authority, since he flew regularly up to the time of his retirement. "At one time," he said, "staff officers were supposed to fly in any obsolescent aircraft so that we could put all our latest aircraft into squadrons and so boost our front-line strength. This was a very dangerous practice. Airmen are needed just as much on staffs as in squad rons, and with the advent of the jet engine this is most important. In fact, orders to jet squadrons written by a staff officer who is ignorant of jet flying might just as well be written in Chinese. A piston-engine pilot today is as much out of date as an archer from Agincourt. And when you find your selves on a ground job such as the staff, go to your stations by air or you will lose caste. Indeed, the only way to a station is straight down the centre line of the runway—and the worse the weather the better." Sir Hugh's third point stressed the high cost of jet flying, quoting as an example the Canberra burning 400 gallons an hour. Finally he pointed out that the "wild young man" pilot of years ago was now of little use. "Today," he said, "our flying demands not only courage, but skill, ac curacy and concentration of the highest order. When you go out into the Service your jobs will be varied; it may be to drop a bomb, fire a gun or take photographs; but whatever it is we must bring to it enthu siasm, skill and a determination to be meticulously accurate in all we do."
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
