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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2148.PDF
CA FLIGHT, 30 July 1954 / I^-J-CA HONOURABLE CONVERSION / / The Lighter Side of Training 'Japanese Civil Transport Pilots THE first task which faced me after arrival in Osaka wap the conversion onto Doves—from Auster Autocars—df eight pilots. Two "aces," making ten in all, had already been converted, but they now requested additional training, mostly in instrument flying, up to Japanese air transport standard. This posed certain problems, as the Japanese C.A.B. has been patterned almost exactly upon that of tHe United States, with consequent difference in standards and procedures. 1 Apart from the need to do some concentrated study oa this aspect, prospects appeared quite pleasing. The weather at the time was good, my prospective? pupils appeared to be intelligent and experienced, and, of course, the Dove is an amiable aeroplane—completely viceless and a joy to handle. I started with the conversions, and with them came my troubles. To begin with, the weather changed to what I would describe, now, as normal Japanese conditions—a rapid succession of gales (which proved to be the first typhoon of the season), heavy rain, low cloud with continuous rain, these alternating with fog, perfect sunshiny periods and occasional snow showers. The season was late autumn, going into winter. Icing was prevalent, and as the fitting By C ap t. H . of airscrew de-icers had somehow been ,. overlooked when the * rest of the de-icing Syf tem had been installed, I took an understandably dim view of anything so practical as a sortie of more than limited duration in bad conditions. Also, I discovered that the weather could, and did, clamp down in as little as half an hour; so considerable caution had to be exercised. Then—my pupils ! Four of them spoke virtually no English; and, of course, I spoke no Japanese. The linguistic capabilities of the other four varied from a smattering to reasonable proficiency. Fortunately, the one who spoke the best English turned out to be one of the best pilots also, so I was able to put him to good use as interpreter and instructor's go-between for the benefit of my pupils of lesser understanding. The system, which was responsible for some tense moments, due to delays and occasional errors in die interpretation service, worked out as follows: Myself in the right- or left-hand seat according to the state of progress of the pupil; my pupil in the other; and, standing between and behind us, our interpreting machine—alert and ready, as it were, to be fed a few sharp words of English, resolve them, and shoot them out again in an inter minable (or so it seemed) stream of Japanese. Occasionally, however, and usually at a most critical moment, he would remain mute and rigid as if to convey to me his disapproval of my suggestions. This is a thing that will forever puzzle me, though perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that Japanese conversa tion makes no provision for the use of rude words or strong language. About the strongest expression they have (and it is considered very bad form to use it) is to call someone a "black- belly," which presumably means a low type of person. One of the F.E.A. Doves, seen taxying out at Hanshui for a 30s joy-riding trip over Osaka. There is a big demand for such rides. THE author of this article is operations manager of Far Eastern Air lines, a new Japanese air-transport company. As he relates here in lighter vein, he has been giving new pilots twin-engine conversion courses on the de Havilland Doves which the company has been operat ing since its formation. It is shortly augmenting its fleet with two Handley Page (Reading) Marathons, the first of which was handed over at Woodley on June 29th (see "Flight," July 9th). Capt. Holmes came home to England to collect this aircraft. My pupils were all keen types and professed to have consider able experience varying from 3,000 to 7,000 hours of pre-war and war-time flying—mostly, they said, in transport operations. However, there had been a nine year gap between then and now, and since their post-war flying averaged around about two hundred hours each in Austers, I suppose it was not surprising to find that they had some difficulty in manoeuvring Doves. Of course, too, there was the teminology difficulty, difference in instrumentation and cockpit layout (although they should already have been fairly well acquainted with this from their recent experience in Autocars), and the fact that Japanese airspace and all airfields are controlled by Far Eastern Air Forces, with American military control and English-speaking radio operators. Two of my non-English-speaking pupils were not able to attain the necessary standard, partly owing to G . HOLMES the fact that the sole instrument landing i_^i^ aid in Japan is G.C.A. and that part of their curriculum was proficiency in its use. These gentlemen, therefore, were returned to their Austers, which do not carry radio, and other more literate types took their places. One of the earlier causes of confusion was the Japanese use, or father lack of use, of the double negative (grammar experts are at liberty to correct me over this). For instance, supposing you had not had your dinner and someone asked: "Haven't you had your dinner?" (or "You haven't had your dinner?") Your answer would be "No." Not so the Japanese. They would answer, "Yes" (i.e., "Your doubt is well-founded—I haven't had my dinner!"). To which the questioner, who has grounds for believing otherwise, queries, "Yes?" Our friends are then likely to reply, "No (I did not mean yes)." And so on, almost indefinitely. ^ With some change of verbs, and the substitution of the word "flaps," "wheels," "cockpit-check," etc., for "dinner" the complications inherent in instructions under this system are obvious. Polite hissing (on the intake), and much sage nodding and shaking of heads, can also take up considerable time. Also, it is not done to sully your vis-a-vis with your breath during conversation. The feat of avoiding this solecism is accomp lished by cupping the mouth in the palm of the hand, at the same time turning the head away slightly—all rather in the furtive manner in which messages are passed from seat to seat under the master's eye at school. It took quite a time to trace the reason for this practice, and even now I get the fanciful impression that my pupil is over come by shyness at finding himself crowded in a small cockpit with a roaring great foreigner. The combination of several such difficulties could not be said to assist a fuller understanding between pupil and instructor. However, training progressed, if slowly, and by Christmas my two "aces" pronounced themselves ready to take the necessary flight tests for their Air Transport Ratings (equivalent to our A.L.T.P.). This was apparently the first test of its kind in Japan and was to be done at Tokyo in one of the Doves by Japanese C.A.B. pilots specially trained in the United States for the purpose. As it had not been possible to get clear details of exactly what the tests were to comprise (for a rea son I discovered later—that the examiners them selves did not fully decide the syllabus until the morning of the flight) I went along for the ride. It proved to be quite a rigorous test which consisted, apart from a few take-offs and landings, of an uninterrupted four hours of concentrated instrument (hood) flying. Great importance was attached to orientation and let-downs on the rac'.io range and at least two-and-a- half hours were spent on this, the pupil being placed in various positions and instructed to find his way to a specified leg of the range by the correct method (of which there are a variety) the choice being determined by the estimated position of the aircraft. IffO rl/o
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