flyin' 3's in New Guinea
Cor a DC3 engineering manual... never saw one!
In Patair, we read the ops manual for a week, learned to draw the systems diagrams by heart and fronted up at DCA in Moresby to sit an exam. we'd usually fail the load sheet as we'd never seen the type they provided or that cabin layout. We'd practise a few more loadsheets and front up for the re-exam of that bit and pass.
Next; the word would go out that new F/Os were getting an endorsement and all the aeroclub members would cart chairs outside near the threshold and witness the aerobatic display over a couple of afternoons as we thought we were doing circuits.
After we were endorsed, off we went as first officers.... no training at all. Ah thems were the days