""As skies were clear and blue every day, we didn't need them. We flew about in blissful ignorance. If there was more than a cloud or two in the sky, solo flying was cancelled."
Had this been the case in flying training in the UK our 6 week EFTS course in 1941 would have lasted 6 months.
The first flight each morning was flown by an instructor as a Weather Check and, if we could see him from the ground, it was declared fit for flying Most of our flying was over broken cloud, and it was a great delight to chase other pupils through the valleys between the cumulous. The Balloon Barrage at Brooklands was pointed out as a good reference point and we learned the bearing and distance from it to Fairoaks. In the second week of flying we were caught in a sudden summer storm. We were soaked to the skin and landed like a Flying Boat. The worst consequence was that my instructor caught pneumonia, which upset my training programme.
The Signal Rockets and the Signal Mortar were demonstrated from the signals square, but I only ever saw then fired “in anger” when I was caught in a violent storm at night, a year later. We had been unable to land and had lost wireless contact. After calling “Darky” I got a very indistinct answer, so I asked for Rockets, then Mortar signals which the airfield had already been firing, When we saw a Mortar shell burst, we lost height until we could see the Airfields Drem system and could land.
Fredjhh.
Danny. We must have been at Babbacombe at about the same time. What made the powers that be decide who went to USA, or who stayed at home?
When The Arnold Scheme was outlined to us, we were told the married men would train at home and the single men would go abroad. The married men were moved first and we followed a day later, -to Fairoaks. A married friend wrote from Marshalls' Field at Cambridge before posting to Canada.
Fred