Down to serious business at Carlstrom now.
First, thank you, Kookabat (#2336), for the kind words. Much appreciated!
Next, I should have added in my last Post what was probably one of the most important differences in USAAC practice: the "Square Circuit" they flew. Instead of coming round on a continuous curve from the downwind leg onto the runway, we had a straight "Base Leg" on which (I think) we maintained circuit height, then turned a right angle onto "Finals", closed the throttle and glided straight down to the landing. (Instead of our "Finals, three greens", some US wags were reputed to call: "On the base, rollers and draggers in place!")
Of course, this made their circuits much wider, but with the area of an English county to play with, this was no problem. (And this is probably the basis for the "Square Meal" with which their lower-class men were tormented).
To business: My first solo was just a beginning. I still had most of my sixty hours to put in. All flying schools are organised on a similar routine. The students are divided into two groups. One flies in the mornings and does Ground School in the afternoons. Next week they change over. The flying was all new to us, of course, but Ground School showed how valuable our six weeks in Newquay had been. Not to put too fine a point on it, we knew nearly as much about Navigation as our Instructors, and I can still remember a lecturer on Instruments tying his fingers in knots in an attempt to demonstrate the Three Axes of Precession of a Gyroscope.
In fairness to our hosts, their wide open spaces and reliable weather (at least down South) made classical navigation much less important to them than it was to us in the UK. Moreover, their commercial inter-city flights all navigated exclusively on "Radio Ranges" along all the major Airways. The Radio Range was an early application of the Lorenz Beam, and their commercial pilots had become so used to flying "on the beam" that they'd almost given up navigating. All was fine until Pearl Harbor, when Germany declared war on the US, and U-boats off their East coast started using the Range signals for their navigation. To stop this, they switched off the Range stations in the Eastern states. This practically grounded Civil aviation there, until the pilots dusted off their maps, and went back to the old, tried and tested methods of finding a way from A to B.
We had examinations, of course, and here we met the Multiple Choice Question for the first time. All this idea does is to make life easier for the marker. Needless to say, we cribbed shamelessly. This horrified our teachers. American cadets were supposed to be governed by an "Honor System", and not even think of doing anything so base. We made it clear that we were incorrigible, and that it was up to them to catch us. Which they often did, and not a few demerits were earned that way. It was this "Honor System" which required you to "inform" on your comrades - I need hardly add that that was a non-starter as far as we were concerned. I must say that they did introduce an attempt of humour in one of their Met exams: one of the choices for "What is the Tropopause?" was "The Pause which Refreshes" (ad for Coca Cola!)
"Coke" cost 5c a bottle. It ruled the market, its two principal competitors (Pepsicola and the unwisely named Royal Crown cola - try saying "R.C.Cola" quickly) couldn't make a dent in its sales, in spite of selling double the quantity for the same price. But the Coke machines would take only nickels, and soon they mopped up all the nickels on the camp. Plaintive cries of "Anyone got two nickels for a dime?" could be heard all over. The story was that "Coke" then contained cocaine, and was habit-forming, and there may have been some truth in it. Every day, the "Coke" salesman rolled up to collect the cash and refill the machines. He would be inundated with offers to change dollars (and even five-dollar bills) into nickels. He never had to carry away much small change. This reminds me of a good story. I think I may have got it from the "Readers Digest", so it must (?) be true. (And I hope the kind Moderator will let it through, though it is way off Thread).
A big US airbase opened near a small mid-western town just after the War. The usual frictions developed: rowdy airmen in town in the evenings, Service families driving up the cost of rented accommodation, parking congestion in the Main Street, and so on. The townsfolk's complaints were making the Colonel's life a misery. He decided to do something about it. Two aircraft flew down South, returning heavily laden.
Next payday, the surprised airmen got paid in dollar coins instead of notes (the silver dollar was legal tender for any amount in that State). They clanked off with pockets bulging. Husbands met trouble when they got home.
This was Friday, and they went to town to do the weekly shopping. Soon all was chaos, tills in stores, cafes and petrol stations were jammed full in the first hour. The banks were unprepared for the sudden rush of payings-in, and this caused further delays which effectively brought all commerce to a halt by mid morning. It was late afternoon before things got back to normal.
The townsfolk got the message ("see where your trade comes from!"). The Colonel was left in peace. Having the Forces on your doorstep is good for business. Put up with a few inconveniences!
Danny42C
Stand by your beds!
Last edited by Danny42C; 23rd Feb 2012 at 19:48.