Originally Posted by
Herod
Way back, before Pontius had even gone to Biggin Hill, basic training from Day One was pure jet. (JP3 and 4). As I understood it at the time, the failure rate was considered too high and too expensive. 1968 or thereabouts, a short (12 hours?) course on the Chipmunk was introduced. The aim being to weed out those who could pass all the stuff at Biggin, but couldn't fly an aeroplane.
You are on the right track Herod, there was a project to reduce wastage at the later stages of flying training. It started around 1973 with a survey of BFTS instructors to establish an objective assessment system. Hand in hand with this was the introduction of the Systems Approach To Flying Training (SAFT) at BFTS. Another component was the establishment of a Grading School trial at Church Fenton. The trial comprised 15 hrs (iirc) flying on the Chipmunk delivered in a standard fashion and objectively assessed. I don’t believe that any candidates were suspended, but their further progress was monitored. I believe it proved to be quite a good predictor. However, it also showed that you could only see so far ahead and whilst the predictions held pretty good at the next stage of training after that they fell away. Why the trial was not continued after the initial period I do not know, although I believe that a Chipmunk lead in was reintroduced a few years later.
The 1970s were a tumultuous period in Training Command, changeover from cadet to graduate entry, large fluctuations in year on year pilot recruitment and the shutdown of the multi-engine stream. I felt especially sorry for one of my students who was caught up in the latter event. He had worked very hard to get through the course and at the end it was coming good. He wouldn’t have made it through Valley but I had no doubt that he would have been successful at Oakington and gone on to make a success of whatever came after that. He was awarded his “wings” and then they were snatched away from him. As it happened, he went on to reach air rank in the Engineering Branch, so I suppose it didn’t turn out too bad for him.
An interesting thing I heard years later from a friend who had access to most of the relevant data for the period was that in spite of the strict application of objectivity in assessment, the most consistent factor in predicting success at the next stage of training was an experienced instructor at the present stage.
YS