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The Shortest Flight (page 2 of 6)
The Training Command was vast, first expanded to satisfy the demands of the Korean War, and now to support America’s growing military build up as the Cold War clamped its hold on the world.
There were 3,000 flight student at any one time, and some 500 SNJ (Harvard’s) used in the initial stages. Training was based on the Pensacola complex, with 4 major airfields and numerous outlying fields.
The system was like a factory production line, churning out an identical quality of product in a set time, with little flexibility. Students were required to pass each stage before moving on to the next, with a high mark, and given limited opportunities to retake a failed element.
There were classes in Aerodynamics, Engineering, Aerology (A good word for Meteorology) Navigation and Survival.
Students were advised that their first action on landing, in the unfortunate event of a bail out over the Florida swamp lands, should be to cut a large stick to ward off poisonous snakes. Bale out was practiced by leaping from the cockpit of a SNJ running at full throttle on the ground, hopefully landing in the net provided.
There were many early misunderstandings due cultural and language differences. The English accent never ceased to amuse fellow officers. A request to borrow a rubber (eraser) from the student at the next desk caused a temporary shocked silence.
The tests papers were of the multiple choice kind. In most cases it was a requirement to achieve a 4.0 result, full marks. Once again the rather less principled foreigners resorted to cheating, if necessary, to better ensure progress.
The day came at last when the course was due to move on to initial flying training.
There was first the irksome check in process, but with growing experience this could be short circuited to some extent, to the amazement of fellow Americans who would not dare to cheat in this way.
All training flights were strictly programmed. First there was a demonstration sortie, followed by 18 dual instructional flights. The 19th flight was a 2 hour “safe for solo check”; the student going solo on his 20th flight.
This might seems a long preparation, but bear in mind that the initial training aircraft was the Harvard, powered by a 550 hp engine, with hydraulics, retractable undercarriage and a variable pitch propeller.
The demonstration flight lasted about 1 hour 20 minutes, as were all the other training sorties, commencing and finishing with a transit through departure and return lanes of about 30 miles.
The Command could only operate so many aircraft with each airfield having its own lane, and designated training areas, mostly over the lakes and bayous of the Florida Everglades.
Flying was always cancelled if there was much cloud for it was just not possible to recover this number of aircraft in IFR conditions. Most of the RN pilots trained in the US had hardly flown in cloud before returning to weather beaten Britain.
Student aircrew waited daily in an over air conditioned crew room for their name to be put on the flight board.
This board was controlled by a team of enlisted “Board boys”, and it was important to be on the best of terms with them, otherwise you might find your time on course extended.
The production line always ran on of course, but some small links could drop out without being noticed. Once again an English accent and an amount of unaccustomed “sucking up” ensured good progress.
The increasing need for more pilots resulted in some of the better US students being restreamed back immediately on qualification to take the instructors course. They had little experience, and taught exactly by the book. You were lucky if allocated one of the few experienced instructors, returning from front line service.
Your name eventually appeared on the board, and identifying your instructor for briefing, were told to go out to the aircraft and prepare for the task. |
