Gaining an RAF pilots brevet in WW2
DANNY 42C--I think the PACT course was 3 or 6 months.I had never really thought that education level would have had relevance in the Aptitude Tests. Unfortunately I dont have Taphappys memory but I think many of the tests were to check dexterity and mental alertness---maybe a test with flashing lights where you had to extinguish them in a certain order---or a series of shapes that you had to insert in the correct hole
The Cornell was not unlike a Magister with an enclosed cockpit, around 100mph cruise with a Ranger engine---easy to fly but perhaps not as good a training vehicle as the Tiger M.
As we were only at Yorkton during the summer the enclosed cabin was of no import.
The Saskatchewan landscape was generally flat with excellent visibility. Our cross countries were perhaps 40 miles a leg with grain elevators--marked with the towns name ,or towns themselves, as turning points. I had relatives in a town called Kamsack---perhaps 40 miles away--not in our flying area but I never even visited them by road.
So my first and only visit to Kamsack was during a Yorkton reunion {1995?} It was more a"drive around" than a visit In mid morning there were drunks lying around ---alcohol is I believe a problem with the Inuits, my relatives had long since died. What was surprising was the number of empty and derelict "villages "and churches in the area.The "villages" had only been a small cluster of wooden houses.maybe a store and an ornate church which tied in with my impression that the area had been populated way back by Russian /Ukranian immigrants.I think that the mechanisation of the now huge grain farms, the decreased need for labour and automobiles led to Yorktons expansion and the villages extinction.
I will check with "survivors" to see if indeed we received RCAF pay rates!