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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0835.PDF
29 June 1956 837 "BALE OUT AND SURVIVE" Duties of a Fleet Air Ann Special School By A. CECIL HAMPSHIRE THE cost of training a Fleet Air Arm pilot is between £30,000and £40,000. Not unnaturally the Navy attaches consider-able importance to the means of his preservation should he be compelled to bale out, force-land or ditch. Naval aircrew safetyequipment is therefore planned to cover a wide margin of emer- gencies. In addition, aircrew are taught how to improvise thevarious items of equipment to aid survival. The trials and development of all such equipment, instructionin methods of survival, and the training of officers and ratings in safety equipment duties form the main tasks of the Fleet Air ArmSafety Equipment and Survival Training School. Originally started at Eastleigh in 1943, it is now at SeafieldPark, close to the R.N. Air Station, Lee-on-Solent. Once a Georgian mansion standing in extensive grounds, then a prepara-tory school, and finally, except for the servants' quarters, a charred ruin as the result of two disastrous fires, Seafield Park was takenover by the Admiralty after the war. Attractively set amid the trees, lawns and flowering shrubs of the mansion grounds, theone-time servants' block has been converted into the school's wardroom mess, and a number of single-storey buildings havebeen erected to house offices, lecture rooms and store rooms. The Solent is within easy reach for various training phases whichrequire to be carried out under realistic conditions. Also at Seafield Park and working in close collaboration with the SurvivalSchool is the R.N. Air Medical School, whose primary function is the training of air medical officers. There are two types of course for F.A.A. safety equipmentofficers: the basic course lasting two weeks for squadron S.E.O.s, and a six-week course for station S.E.S.O.s. The courses coverpractical experience of the inspection and packing of parachutes, abandon-aircraft drills, parachute jumping technique, life-savingwaistcoats, dinghy packs (to include dry and wet dinghy drill), emergency packs, repairs, ejection seat, flying clothing and wetwinching, concluding with half a day at the air medical school. The station S.E.S.O. course also includes a visit to a firm manu-facturing safety equipment. Training for ratings is considerably more detailed, since safetyequipment handling is a Fleet Air Arm specialist subject in the same way as gunnery or torpedo/anti-submarine in the seamanbranch of the general Service. There are three classes of safety equipment rating, the first-class rate usually being held by chiefand petty officers, who themselves become instructors. The qualifying course for the third-class rate lasts 12 weeks.Its syllabus covers the packing and fitting of all types of parachute in naval use, including packing without proper tools and facilities;servicing, storage and transportation, and safety harness; dinghies and associated equipment, their inflation, deflation, folding andstowage; search and rescue apparatus; helicopter rescue harness and strop; flying clothing, which includes underwear, overalls, helmets, goggles, anti-g suits, immersion suits, inflatable exposuresuits, aircrew life-jackets and oxygen equipment; ejection seats and emergency equipment.Advanced courses for higher S.E. ratings, all of which are con- ducted at Seafield Park, include lectures on the fabric and repairof parachutes, with recourse to sewing machines—hand, treadle and electrically driven; synthetic and live parachute jumping; wetand dry dinghy drill; servicing and repair of rescue apparatus, flying clothing and survival equipment; servicing and repair ofoxygen equipment; air medicine, with an anoxia run in the decom- pression chamber; and ejection seat training. For S.E.I rating thewet dinghy drill is carried out in the Solent with helicopter rescue, serving the dual purpose of training rescuer and rescued inappropriate techniques. Senior courses last nine weeks, and include swimming, dailyexercises and organized games. Physical training is important since it raises morale by improving the standard of mental andphysical alertness, and demonstrates the close relationship of physical fitness to parachute jumping, abandon-aircraft and wetdinghy drill training. F.A.A. safety equipment personnel are usually allocated in theratio of one officer and two ratings to each squadron, and one officer and from four to eight ratings to a Naval air station. Seafield Park's instructional facilities include parachute packingrooms, and an ejection seat room with a fully rigged seat for theoretical instruction. Practical ejection seat training is done ona "vertical runway" fitted to a tower in the grounds. The dinghy room is equipped with a set of dropping gear, aswell as dinghies, dinghy packs and dummy containers for packing training. The naval dinghy pack normally holds, in addition tothe dinghy, compressed air bottles, distress cartridges, matches, de-salting kit, rations, first-aid kit, leak stoppers, wrist-fittingpaddles, and an instruction booklet. The dinghy itself contains a baler and baling sponge, heliograph,inflating bellows pump and inflatable exposure suit. Additional items which can be included in the pack are a mosquito net,gloves, socks, a drogue, knife, compass, a tin of fishing kit, needles and thread, and ground/air emergency code. There is also awaterproof poncho, drab coloured on one side and mauve or yellow on the other so that it can be used as a means of identificationfrom the air. The dinghy pack itself can be made into a march haversack, using the parachute straps for slings. The poncho canalso be utilized in a number of ingenious ways, from tent to portable water bag.Theoretical ditching instruction is first given in a class-room with a mock-up cockpit. Subsequently the cockpit is taken to aswimming bath, where the pupil, strapped in and wearing full flying kit, is swung into the water from the high diving board.Under the critical eyes of instructors he must extricate himself, (Left) Synthetic parachute-jumping training. (Right) Safety-equipment ratings under training receiving instruction on the M-type dinghy. The instructor is holding the small drogue, or sea anchor, which prevents the dinghy drifting away down wind after inflation.
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