My uncle, long gone now, flew in France towards the end on WW1. He covered his war experiences in his memoires, an edited excerpt of which is below. Noticeable is that the poor instructor was found out by someone senior (isn't that what flight commanders, standards instructors, bosses are for?) and that a keen instructor improved the students' progress.
WW1 FLYING INSTRUCTORS
Harry took his first flight on 30 Nov 1917 in an Armstrong Whitworth biplane with a 200hp Beardmore stationary engine. Harry recalls that he was quite uncomfortable and perhaps a little scared of the whole thing.
The next few weeks were taken up with more ground school, and firing the aircraft machine guns from aircraft fuselages on the ground. The group’s instructor was not keen on instructing, and used his students as bowlers so that he could practise his batting in the nets. Their flying time was very low, and someone senior had noticed their lack of progress. They were assigned to the Wing Examining Officer, a Captain Oliver. Each student flew with Capt Oliver in turn, flying in an Avro, which was equipped with a Gosport Tube. Four of the group, including Harry, passed, one was sent to observer school and one “washed out”.
The four were assigned to a new instructor, Lieutenant Keevil, who was very keen, and they all began to make progress. There was much activity on the aerodrome, and there were several instances of aircraft landing on top of aircraft on the ground. They were now flying a DH6. Harry was sent first solo on 13 Dec 17. He describes the first solo exercise as being a take-off, two level turns and a landing. He managed the take-off, the turns and the approach. He had difficulty controlling his speed during the landing, landed at speed and knocked a main wheel off. He slewed to a stop, but right-way up. Lt Keevil trotted over to him, asked how he felt, to which the answer was, “Very well but not too happy.” There were two or three other DH6s sitting outside the hangar, and Lt Keevil got Harry into one, told him to get airborne again, but to stay overhead the aerodrome for 30 minutes and then land. This all happened without further incident. Harry was very conscious of at last being one of only a few hundred people who had piloted a heavier-than-air- machine up to that time.