Originally Posted by
mad_jock
Just reminded me of talking to the old girl next door.
She was sent down to leeds to pick up a Lancaster bomber for delivery up to Inverness all she had was hand written pilot notes on the train to read for her first flight with another lady who hadn't flown one before. Then she got driven up to Fern to pick up a spit but that was ok because she had flown one of them before. All with the grand total of 120 hours flying.
Ann Welch once told me that it was perfectly normal to turn up not knowing what you were going to fly, read how to get in and start whilst being driven to the aircraft, read how to take-off whilst warming up, and read how to land whilst in the cruise.
Amazing women (and a few men we shouldn't forget) the ATA, but not that many of them made it to the end of the war.
You can buy a set of those notes still, referred to as the "ATA Blue Book" from the Yorkshire Air Museum - I have a set, and they were £20 well spent just for the sheer fascination of it.
G