I was never a Cadet or in a position to fly Cadets, but on a tour as the Adj of an Auxiliary Fighter Control Unit, I was often able to borrow the Squadron Harvard or the Station Tiger Moth at weekends. I was able to keep my hand in on the Squadron Vampires (indeed, you were obliged to do so [if there was opportunity] on your ground tours in the '50s), but they had only single-seat Mks. III and V.
An extract from a Post of mine (on another Thread 18 months ago):
...Your #5505 reminds me that I used to give "Air Experience" flights to our troops from time to time on Sundays at Thornaby (always picking a sunny afternoon for the Station TM !), and sometimes in the Harvard.
It was strange to find that, even as late as the early'50s, that apart from the tiny minority who had wartime aircrew experience, and some who'd a bit of glider or light airctaft time, no more was generally known about the art of piloting than fifty years before. Many thought of it as a sort of "high wire" balancing act, in which only the consummate skill of the operator stood between safety and and an uncontrollable plunge to earth.
So when I offered the back-seat passenger the chance to "have a go", the response was often naked terror. Not for all the tea in China would they touch the stick, and begged me not to let go. I'd lift my hands in the air to show that the aircraft could happily look after itself - they were horrified. "Take it", I'd say, "there's no trouble that you can get into that I can't get out of in ten seconds" (I was sticking my neck out a bit there). It was no good.
At the other end of the spectrum, some went at it with gusto, and I had to intervene before they had the wings off the poor old Tiger.... It takes all sorts...
Danny42C.