Memoirs of a WWII Typhoon pilot - Part 9
More training in Canada...
We noticed a difference between Windsor Mills and St Hubert immediately. St Hubert was a peacetime RCAF station and much larger than Windsor Mills. The whole atmosphere was different, much more disciplined and service orientated. There was a very large parade ground across which you were forbidden to walk. You could cross this area but had to march properly and not forget to salute the flag when it was flying. Everything was on a much larger scale, including the aircraft, which were North American 'Harvard' low wing monoplane trainers.
These had Curtis 'Wasp' radial engines with inertia starters. These starters were wound up by inserting a crank handle into a socket in the side of the aircraft just aft of the engine bay. The handle needed quite a lot of effort to get it turning and the first slow turns were accompanied by a low growl which gradually ascended in pitch as the handle was turned faster until, with the handle turning about once every two seconds, the sound was a high pitched whistle. This was an internal flywheel rotating at high speed. The pilot then engaged the clutch when everything was set for engine starting. The energy stored in the flywheel was then used to turn over the engine. If everything had been done correctly the rapidly descending howl of the flywheel was then drowned out by the staccato firing of the unsilenced exhausts. If however the startup procedure had not been done properly and the engine failed to catch, the poor chap at the starting handle had the unenviable job of winding the flywheel up to speed again.
The correct procedures were encouraged by penalties. Two false starts meant that the student pilot had to spend a morning as an engine starter and wind up the flywheels himself!
As well as an engine starter, these aircraft had retractable undercarriages, trailing edge hydraulic flaps, variable pitch propellers, and a full complement of flying instruments. This meant that there was much more to pay attention to and much more comprehensive cockpit checks for preflight, pre takeoff, pre landing and shutdown. The most common fault, in the first few hours of solo flying at SFTS, was to come in to land with the undercarriage up. There was a very loud warning horn which blasted in the pilot's ear if he closed the throttle with the undercarriage up.
However this was a 'last resort' device since, if the pilot was doing a powered approach and landing, he would only close the throttle just before touch down and it was a toss-up as to whether he could open up in time to avoid stalling or whether his reaction would be too late to avoid an expensive belly flop. Also this horn could be switched off as it was a nuisance if you were doing exercises such as stalling or spinning which required you to close the throttle in flight. However, the flying control staff were always 'on the ball' for this error and fired a red Verey light across the front of any aircraft approaching to land with the wheels up - making you "go round" again. If they had to do this, they took a note of the aircraft number and the unfortunate pupil pilot had to spend half a day parading up and down the aircraft parking area, in full view of all the other pilots, prominently carrying a large notice on a long pole proclaiming "I tried to land with my wheels up!"
My first flight in a Harvard was on the 8th July 1942. My instructor was a F/O Fairbanks. He was an American who had joined the Canadian Air Force, and had a big disregard for what he thought were petty restrictions. During the course we did a lot more low flying and aerobatics than were laid down in the curriculum.
I soloed a Harvard after some seven hours dual. The flying course, apart from the initial 'Circuits and Bumps', had a much greater emphasis on navigation and instrument flying and, towards the end, on dive bombing and formation work. The ground school course was also more practical and included such things as parachute packing and basic engine maintenance.