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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1136.PDF
504 PLIGHT, 23 April 1954 The Proof of the Provost First Provostj Vampire Course on its Way Leg show: Ternhill Provosts in close echelon. THE new R.A.F. flying training system is now coming into play. After a rather fluid post-war period of indecision and frequent changes, the routine has been largely adjusted to the needs of a jet air force. Where pre viously pupils might have flown any of five types of aircraft before qualifying for their wings, they will now fly only two, the Provost and the Vampire T.ll. The stand-bys of the old system, the staid Prentice and the rugged Harvard, are steadily being replaced by the new types. The three principal factors in the new order are side-by-side seating all through, the high-powered basic trainer and the turbojet-powered advanced trainer. At first sight, such innovations might appear formidable, but in practice no great difficulties are foreseen. Certainly the Provost has so far given rise to no complaints. The first course to be trained entirely in the new system recently completed basic training on the Provost at Ternhill, and Flight visited the station to see how this first stage went. Arriving in the office of the O.C. Flying Wing, and pre pared to savour once again the rigours of a training station and the frustration attendant on the introduction into service of a new aircraft, we were immediately—and pleasantly—dis illusioned. The station was attractive and businesslike, the sky teeming with Provosts and resonant with their as-yet- unfamiliar engine noise. The new trainer was most palpably giving good service. After being warmly received by W/C. G. W. Garton, D.S.O., D.F.C., we settled down to find out about the Provost in service. Basically the new training schedule is as follows. It begins with 12 weeks of I.T.S. ground training, rather similar to that of the Army's Officer Cadet Training Units, and concerned mainly with personal qualities pertinent to the holding of a commission. This initial warming-up period is followed by a 30-week course on Provosts, covering substan tially the same ground as the old Prentice course, but involving 120 hours of flying instead of 65 hours. The acting pilot officer, as the pupil-pilot is now styled, leaves his Provost course with a thorough foundation in the accepted range of ground subjects and a really useful number of hours on a machine which truly qualifies for the name of aeroplane. The remarkable quality of the Provost is that it behaves in nearly all important respects like an aircraft of substantial size, while preserving completely those qualities of lightness and sensitivity which the R.A.F. has always demanded of a basic trainer. After three weeks' leave, the pupil passes on to a 30-week course of 110 flying hours in the Vampire T.l 1. Though this may appear to be a considerable step forward at a compara tively early stage in his experience, we hope to show in the remainder of this story—and in a proposed sequel—that the step forward is not so radical as some might be led to believe. It is on the T.ll that the pupil will gain his wings and also his first instrument rating. After a further period of leave, the now-qualified pilot goes on to an O.T.U. and learns the work of the branch to which he has been assigned. This new scheme is eminently reasonable, and it contrasts fairly strongly with the old order. Hitherto, a pupil pilot might have had to fly first the Chipmunk or the Prentice, and then the Harvard, Balliol or Oxford, before achieving his wings. After that (and after having, in more recent times, obtained a "white" instrument rating on piston aircraft) he would go on to a jet A.F.S., learn to fly a Meteor, obtain a white instrument rating for jets, and pass finally to an O.C.U. He would first graduate as a "steam pilot" on piston- engined aircraft, and would not meet the crucial test of jet conversion until he was nearly trained. If this step were too much for him, however, then the initial training period and the concomitant expense would be wasted. It must be remembered that the cost of training must neces sarily rise in proportion to the cost of operational flying and of operational aircraft. As more and more jet aircraft are introduced into service, it becomes increasingly necessary to produce not merely a qualified pilot, but a jet pilot. It is to produce this jet pilot as efficiently as possible that the high-powered basic trainer has been adopted. The initial grading course, consisting of a score or so of hours on Chip munks (usually operated by civil schools) is now considered to offer no advantage. The pupil comes straight from the I.T.S. to the F.T.S., and after two days of ground lectures he receives his first flying experience in the Provost. During our visit to Ternhill we had the opportunity of flying the Provost, and were greatly impressed with its qualities. One immediately feels on take-off that the aircraft has the power to "go places"; yet with many of the charac teristics of a large aircraft it handles, one might say, deli cately. The Leonides engine gives it something of the feel of a release from gravity which is characteristic of the effort less performance of a jet. But despite its lightness and straightforwardness, the pilot must still manage the aircraft properly if he is to obtain the; required results from it. The first question we asked W/C. Garton was about the effect of 550 h.p. on an ab initio trainer. It was not till we had flown the aircraft that we realized how little effect there was, and how well the engine fits the airframe. We next enquired about the side-by-side seating arrangement. This is not new in a basic trainer, but it is novel in an aircraft with a performance similar to that of the Harvard. The general opinion among instructors was most favourable. The psychological advantage of side-by-side seating is difficult to define, but advantage there is. The instructor csn more accurately assess his pupil's ability, and the pupil will more rapidly gain that confidence in his new environment which is most necessary to later success. More direct contact between instructor and pupil considerably eases the instructor's task, and lessens the nervous strain which may have existed before. The station commander, G/C. R. J. B. Burns, O.B.E., and the O.C., Flying Wing, W/C. G. W. Garton, D.S.O.,|D.F.C, outside S.H.Q. at Ternhill.
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