National Service Aircrew
I served as national service aircrew 1951-53.
Called up after deferment to finish a part time mech eng, course. Arrived at Padgate and found that one could apply to be selected as aircrew. Route was Hornchurch for initial selection, RAF Digby for 12 hours grading on Tiger Moths, eventually selected as cadet pilot and send to RAF Burnaston, (Now the Toyota factory). 60 hours on Chipmunks, followed by 120 hours on Oxfords or Harvards, I failed the advanced course owing to not flying my Oxford with sufficient accuracy. I then transferred to a Navigation course at Bishops Court in County Down, finally getting my Nav Brevet six weeks before the end of my 2 years, Personnel were mainly engineering or bank staff who were able to return to better paid jobs than RAF pay at the time, we were only offered 4 year commissions, so nor many signed up as regular air crew. As an aside many of the staff pilots on the NAV course were Czechs and Poles who stayed on after the war.