Originally Posted by
Rescue3
Chris -
"I don't have a decode to establish the exercises flown but, after a week and 6 hours' dual in Chipmunks, he recorded "FIRST SOLO". That's pretty quick, unless he had previous experience with, for example, a UAS at his university in England. But no earlier logbook has been found. The certificate recording completion of Primary Flight Training is dated 2/8/57."
Someone, somewhere should have the key to those codes, have you approached the RAF or may be even better the RCAF?, last time i was in Ottawa the museum there seemed to have a plethora of information.
Thanks, it's a thought. At AST Perth (Scone) in the 1960s, we used exercise codes that were similar but, I concluded, not quite the same as the RCAF ones. However, I think we are all fairly
au-fait with the exercises needed to take a trainee-pilot through the primary training in a Chipmunk or other
ab-initio trainer.
They would include, of course, spin entry and recovery. The Chipmunk is said to be susceptible to developing a so-called flat spin, which may be irrecoverable. Many, including those used by the RAF, were modified with a dorsal strake on each side of the rear fuselage, just forward of the tailplane, to mitigate that tendency. The Wikipedia entry includes a photo of RCAF-style Chipmunks with bubble canopies. These would have been produced by DH Canada long after the type's spin characteristics were well known, but there is no sign of the strakes.