JUSTIFIER . As far as we were concerned Moncton was just a transit camp, and I cannot remember an airfield. A pic of one of the buildings taken on our return journey is above. On my first solo, I was very apprehensive waiting for the test, but on pushing the throttle wide open , immediately became confident, almost exuberant. I later realized this was due to not having a critic strapped in to the front cockpit.
I found the Tiger Moth and the P.T17 ( A.K.A Boeing Stearman) sturdy enough to stand fairly rough handling, but bear in mind we carried out three point landings, rather than wheel them in., so most times they stalled out and sank gently onto the ground. I saw many “arrivals” but no bent undercarts.
About December we had snow, pic below, but this did not affect our training, as we did not experience wing icing, possibly due to low humidity, and the fact that we didn’t need to fly too high to perform our exercises. We could also apply carburettor heating, and so prevent carburettor icing. The American version of the Irvin jacket together with our four thickness white silk inner gloves and leather gauntlets kept us warm. The enclosed cockpit of the A.T.6 made a big difference to our comfort , particularly when side slipping. The billets and crew room were very warm as the gas for the central heating came from local oil fields at very low cost. In fact it was just taken for granted, and when the billets became to warm, cadets regulated the heat by opening the windows.
Flying exercises continued, all as before plus air to air two plane gunnery practice, air to ground gunnery , all good fun. Formation flying check ride with a Mr Schellennerger. ,. Two 2 ˝ hour trips navigational course flying. Precautionary landings , whatever they may be. Solo night flying navigation exercises.
On the Link trainer we had instruction on Standard Beam Approach , and Descent through Cloud procedure. Later log book was stamped Advanced Syllabus Exam passed..
Classroom lessons included lectures on reconnaissance , on conducting a square search (This consists of flying to the point where it is estimated a plane is down in the drink, and then flying N.S.E and W in ever increasing squares until found. ).and navigation, rhumb lines .great circles, phew.
On a lighter note, one of the cadets found that , when night flying , and returning early in the morning that if he glided in to land the propeller would “fine out”. When he was over the billets and he opened the throttle wide, a loud scream would result until the propeller “coarsened out” . When he arrived back at the billets, a reception committee of wide awake cadets, was waiting for him, he didn’t do it again.
ROLL ON THE BOAT.
