MPN11,
Following my #8726, I suppose we must accept that my earlier Post has "gone with the wind", for I certainly did not delete it. However, I will do my best from memory, for I do not intend to leave this alone.
...... despite having a PPL, I admit I did not do terribly well during Flying Grading...
As I recall you saying, the sequence of events was (roughly) this: You had accumulated 100+ hours on some modern nosewheel light airctaft and got a PPL on the way. Then you applied to the Navy: they started you on the Tiger Moth.Not surprisingly you struggled, they were unsympathetic, did not give you a second chance or another Instructor, but chopped you......... Is that a fair summary ?
I had flown Stearman, Vultee Valiant, Harvard, Master, Hurricane, Spitfire, Vultee Vengeance and P-47 Thunderbolt, gone out for three years, come back, flew Harvard and Spitfire again, then Meteor (15 hrs) to a total of some 700 hours. Then they gave me a Tiger Moth - I had Hell's own job with it and made a right mess of it! (the flying, not the Tiger) - the 15 hours nosewheel on the Meteor had "converted" me from 700 hours tail-dragging.
(Geriaviator, who has owned Tigers and has a lot of time in them, told us [in a Post] that all FJs had trouble with their first Tiger. Why not - it is 'one of a kind', after all).
So what chance did you have, with only nosewheel experience, starting on a Tiger ? Paradoxically, it would have been far better for you if you had done no flying at all (as would have been the case with nearly all your classmates).
If the facts are as I have outlined, then I say that the Navy had treated you shabbily, and I would stand by that. Luckily, the Light Blue knew a good man when they saw one.
...I really should start a Thread about "Gaining an ATCO's Certificate of Competency post-WW2"...
Why not ? (I might even put in a word from time to time).
Danny.