Unreliable engines and rotary engines with their peculiar handling traits (rich cuts after takeoff for instance)
I remember reading somewhere that there was a special enquiry into the Camel, because of the appalling accident rate in training. Can anyone confirm this?
My paternal grandfather was an RNAS Camel pilot, who survived the training system and then survived the war by being shot down, landing behind German lines and ended up in a POW camp (Holzminden I think). He was shot down by Carl Degelow, and merited a chapter entitled The Musical Tommy in Degelow's memoirs (Germany's Last Knight of the Air). My grandfather was taken to Degelow's mess for a party before departing for the POW camp. During a sing-song around the mess piano, my grandfather noticed a violin and mentioned that he could play the violin. After his host apologized that they had no strings, my grandfather produced a set from his pocket. Obviously, he was well prepared for all combat eventualities!
My other grandfather was also an RNAS pilot, but he survived by not having finished training by the time of the armistice. He produced an immaculate photograph album, that was full of pictures of mangled aeroplanes, with captions like "Smith's crash", "Deek's crash", etc. There is one lovely picture of a 504J with its nose in a hedge, complete with a Boy Scout guarding it and the caption underneath says "My Crash"
In the front of the album, there was a photograph of his class at Greenwich, upon graduation. Everyone's name was carefully inscribed underneath. About 40% of the names were underlined and a footnote indicated that they were killed in training.