The memoirs of Sqn Ldr Rupert Parkhouse, recorded in 1995 Part 22. First post in this series is #9775 on page 489 of this thread.
ONE OF the unfortunate things was that we used to fly on Monday but then the aircraft would go u/s and we would not fly again until Friday, a gap of four days, and one of the things about flying training is that you must constantly reinforce your knowledge and your skill.
I soldiered on for 20 hours' dual on the Mosquito, the amazing thing being that I did five takeoffs in succession without any swing developing and my instructor said 'I think you've really got it now, Rupe, we'll have you solo next week'.
But the next time we flew I was all over the place, we developed a swing and we left the runway and hurtled towards the hedge. I remember him screaming at me 'Don't clamp on those brakes, don't clamp on those brakes'. Unfortunately his wife was about 500 yards away walking their child in a pram along the edge of the airfield, I don't know what she thought of the performance.
Anyway, I was sent on leave for a week and on my return the CFI told me he didn't think I was going to make it and he would have to see what could be done with me. Well, the Air Ministry very sensibly sent me up to the School of GR at Leuchars as a staff pilot on Avro Ansons, with which I had no trouble at all.
I flew exercises with the navigation students until the following June when my CO, Jimmy Stack, who had been my under-officer at Cranwell and who was an old flying-boat man, wangled me a posting to 201 flying-boat Sqn and I went down to Calshot as a sort of third pilot at the end of June 1947. I had always wanted to fly boats, I thought it would be a nice comfortable life and I could work my way up to captain in about three years.
We were on a long night sortie over the North Sea with four pilots on board, as was the custom, and we were having a fry-up snack in the wardroom when W/Cdr Mondo Crosby, who was captain of the aircraft, announced to the gathering that he had some news for us, Flt Lt Parkhouse has been promoted to squadron leader. I was absolutely amazed. This was part of the sortout in 1947 when all the seniorities were adjusted.
NEXT POST: At the Air Ministry, a very pleasant South African called Fats Lowe told me that I was quite useless and that I would have to be re-trained.