It's going back many many years since I was QFI in the RAAF and now also long retired from airline flying. But one thing I have always wondered was the high scrub rate during RAAF training during the lead-up to graduation as a pilot. Of the countless trainee pilots scrubbed in my era (18 years RAAF service - all flying posts), a high proportion continued to fly in GA and eventually made a command in the major airlines.
It struck me that the RAAF using tax payer's money, held no instructor accountable for the scrubbing of a trainee pilot for perceived lack of the Right Stuff to be a RAAF pilot. One Wing Commander who was CO of several RAAF flying schools during his career had a terrible reputation for scrubbing trainee pilots even though some had come within a few weeks or even days of the Wings Test.
He scrubbed one unfortunate because the trainee had brakes trouble in a Wirraway and stood the Wirra on its nose when the brakes seized during the landing run. The brake calibration was later found to be well out of tolerance because of a error in the RAAF Manual of Servicing. The trainee pilot was within two weeks of graduation. But there was a happy ending as a few years later he was a Boeing 747 captain with Cathay Pacific.
Top brass never questioned The Wing Commander's decision or had a good look at his history of scrub rides. This Wing Commander with his penchant for instant scrubbing of young trainees must have cost the RAAF (tax payers) hundreds of thousands of dollars or maybe Pounds Sterling.
Screaming skull RAAF instructors abounded in those far of years and yet they were never brought to heel by their superiors. At No 1 AFTS Point Cook there were three Warrant Officer QFI's who had a fearful reputation as screamers in the cockpit. But not even the Commanding Officer was aware of this. I knew this because only a few years back I had coffee with him in Sydney (he is 88 years old and still going strong) and we chatted about the good old days and his time as CO of Point Cook. He was astonished and almost disbelieving when I mentioned the three Warrant Officers under his then command. He had no idea that shouters and screamers were in the ranks of his QFI's.
The current cost of training a RAAF trainee pilot is quoted as hundreds of thousands of dollars - yet when a trainee pilot is scrubbed, there is no questions asked of his instructors because they are not held accountable. Of course there will be trainee pilots who will fail because no matter how good the instructor is, the trainee pilot simply cannot make a satisfactory grade within a reasonable time limit.
But there was (in my time, anyway) ample evidence that some trainee pilots could flourish with a change of instructor - yet the CFI or CO could scrub you
depending whether or not he still had a hang-over from a night on the piss at the Officers Mess. I kid you not - it happened occasionally. There was simply no accountability.
I was fortunate to have a series of wonderful instructors during my training - others lucked out by being allotted a bastard instructor. Then it was out on your neck with 24 hours notice back to civvy street with nowhere to live - no job waiting for you - no money - and maybe only 18 years old. A frightening prospect.
RAAF CFI's and CO's could scrub a trainee on gut feeling - the usual excuse being the unfortunate trainee could not hack it in a wartime scenario. No lawyers in those days to bring you up sharp and explain your actions. No accountability for tax payers money thrown away on a perhaps ill judged decision to scrub a trainee pilot. I wonder if things have changed in the RAAF since then?
Last edited by Centaurus; 9th Sep 2007 at 13:36.