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A day or two later we started flying. I had already the required hours but we needed night landings. We used goose necked flares for the landing strip on the grass field and, if the wind changed, the pupils and the night flying ground crews had to change the “runway.”
On the third day, the 14 commission candidates were told to parade at SHQ at 9-00 am.
The SWO marched us in, one at a time, for interview with the Group Captain, the CGI and the CFI. All 14 were interviewed in a total time of 30 minutes. My interview consisted only of, “What school did you attend?” I named my Grammar School. “What games did you play?” “Cricket, Soccer and Tennis, Sir.” “If you got into debt as a officer, would your father pay your debts?” “ No Sir. My father died when I was eleven.” “Would you mother pay your debts?” “No Sir. I would not get into debt.” I was dismissed. The others were asked the same questions.
Next morning a Message was posted on the crew room board.
None of the members of 29a Course (Ex-Lyneham) will be commissioned.
Night Flying continued. A pupil on the senior course wore the ribbon of the George Medal. His aircraft had been attacked at night by a German fighter, and set on fire. His instructor was seriously wounded and the pupil, on his first night flight, had to land the aircraft and get the instructor clear. On an earlier course, a pupil had rammed a German aircraft in daylight, and his name is commemorated with a tablet on the Church yard wall in the village of Sherbourne, where he died.
Then we had the first snow. I took off on a bright January day and, at 300ft, I flew into a snow storm. I kept climbing ahead and came out in clear air. Circling the Rissington hill I could see a pillar of snow falling on the airfield. There was no way I could land there, so I flew to Brize Norton and booked in at the Watch Office, where they insisted I must be “lost.”
They did not believe my story until an ATA officer landed a Wellington and said he could not get into Rissington for heavy snow. I stayed the night and I was allowed to return next day. Then the snow got really severe, piling great drifts on the western edge of the hill, cutting us off from Bourton-on-the-Water and the outside world. After four days we were on hard rations, and we were set to work to dig a passage down the hill to join up with Army parties digging up the hill. A week later we started Night Flying again and we had our Wings Examination. The course average mark was the highest to date at 6 SFTS and I was very pleased to come 9th out of 54. The Course mark did not appear on the Honours Board!