From 1960,Who is this pilot and is he still around!!
Within six months!!!!
This was clearly before the advent of training blocks, holding postings and all the other impediments thrown across the path to the RAF Flying Badge. Officer training at Kirton in Lindsay or South Cerney by 1960, of 12 weeks?? Ground School and then dual leading to a solo, lucky S**.
The spin looks good too. Flt Lt at 25 with full allowances, suggests that the guy has married and draws the full rate of MA .
A couple of years later, one of my long standing friends was in a follow up campaign entitled "Seven Days in the Life of ???????????". Fifty years later he is still not allowed to forget it!!
Old Duffer
This was clearly before the advent of training blocks, holding postings and all the other impediments thrown across the path to the RAF Flying Badge. Officer training at Kirton in Lindsay or South Cerney by 1960, of 12 weeks?? Ground School and then dual leading to a solo, lucky S**.
The spin looks good too. Flt Lt at 25 with full allowances, suggests that the guy has married and draws the full rate of MA .
A couple of years later, one of my long standing friends was in a follow up campaign entitled "Seven Days in the Life of ???????????". Fifty years later he is still not allowed to forget it!!
Old Duffer
That's because they wanted us young in those days! The salary figures look good and did not change for years as I recall. First month came to £28 but they did feed and house us for free!
Red On, Green On
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I was born the year before this and in April 1978 I went to Dartmouth as an SL(P) Midshipmite.
I soloed in November, seven months later, but only in a Chipmunk at Roborough on Grading
I soloed in November, seven months later, but only in a Chipmunk at Roborough on Grading
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When I was a Flt Cdr at Halton there was an ill-advised campaign to recruit apprentices using the tag-line "Become an Aerocrat" quickly paraphrased to Aerocr*p! Re stumbling blocks to progress through the training machine there were some very nice "Holding Posts". One colleague of mine got 6 months as ADC to the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and another was given a Meteor conversion and 3 months target towing in Singapore!
Managed just under 6 months - joined 16 Apr 63 JP solo 10 Oct 63. Nothing to do with me - just the system running smoothly with no stops. Not long after this there were extensive holding periods for all. At that time I took a few days over 3 years to a Lightning Sqn and so the timings in '60 were probably better as only 1 OCU needed.
Interesting to see that the highest mandatory qualifications required are 'O' levels in maths and English!
I remember at nav school I regularly scored highest on our course in the frequent mental arithmetic tests and used to pull the leg of one on our course who was a maths graduate about this (I passed O level maths in 1964). He pointed out that that there was more to maths than arithmetic, but I used to say that mental arithmetic was a much more valuable skill to a nav than the ability to understand differential calculus.
Heres another one from the period. I know him well and his lack of A levels or a maths degree certainly didnt hold him back! Terrific pilot - good enough to be entrusted with the BBMF Lancaster for a tour!
http://www.vforcereunion.co.uk/image...rew-1963-4.jpg
Last edited by Tankertrashnav; 19th Oct 2014 at 09:23.
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I fit the timescale of that advert although I thought I wrote to Wg Cdr M A D'Arcy not the Gp Capt. 6 months and 20 days from joining to first solo and that was in the terrible winter of 1962/3. More importantly 25 months from joining to being posted to my first Vulcan squadron.
This was at a time when the system worked because the RAF needed the aircrew. Holding postings were virtually unheard of!
ACW
This was at a time when the system worked because the RAF needed the aircrew. Holding postings were virtually unheard of!
ACW
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Six months and twenty days for me, and that included the better part of two month's holding. The education requirements are correct, and it was only two of the subjects at "A" level to qualify for Cranwell. By the time I turned twenty-one I'd done the JP course, a helicopter course, been on a squadron for a few weeks (they cut establishment, and the newbies were the cut), held on another squadron, type conversion and seven months overseas service with yet another squadron.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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Holding postings were virtually unheard of!
A ground job after doing all that was necessary to pass a single seat Hunter OCU in those days was hard to accept. So after a few weeks of this, two of us went to Bently Priory one sports afternoon and posted the four of us back to Chivenor, which had 64 Hunters and no studes worth talking about. This worked fine for a while until the system caught up and we had the inevitable interview with the Station Commander. After some pretend (it didn't seem pretend to us at all) very serious comments about interfering with Her Majesty's posting process, Group Captain Pleasance said it was the best thing he had heard of since WWII and asked if we would all like to go to Hunter squadrons.
That man (a WWII commander) knew that the motivation of the troops in a military unit mattered and we were motivated.
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Interesting to see that the highest mandatory qualifications required are 'O' levels in maths and English!
A ground job after doing all that was necessary to pass a single seat Hunter OCU in those days was hard to accept. So after a few weeks of this, two of us went to Bently Priory one sports afternoon and posted the four of us back to Chivenor, which had 64 Hunters and no studes worth talking about. This worked fine for a while until the system caught up and we had the inevitable interview with the Station Commander. After some pretend (it didn't seem pretend to us at all) very serious comments about interfering with Her Majesty's posting process, Group Captain Pleasance said it was the best thing he had heard of since WWII and asked if we would all like to go to Hunter squadrons.
That man (a WWII commander) knew that the motivation of the troops in a military unit mattered and we were motivated.
That man (a WWII commander) knew that the motivation of the troops in a military unit mattered and we were motivated.
The only way to do that today would be to become some geeky cyber-hacker as postings (sorry, assignments these days) are all done electronically. Although I dare say some in Manning might be able to swing some choice assignments...
2 A levels now leaves you less well prepared than 5 'O'levels did then.
The RAF made no great use of its graduate aircrew. Mostly one just pointed out where the groundschool was wrong.
"If you're clever enough to spot the error in the question, you're clever enough to work out what answer the examiner wants, Fox" was an excellent put-down I received once for being a smart-arse.
The RAF made no great use of its graduate aircrew. Mostly one just pointed out where the groundschool was wrong.
"If you're clever enough to spot the error in the question, you're clever enough to work out what answer the examiner wants, Fox" was an excellent put-down I received once for being a smart-arse.
Well it's still 5 O-levels (GCSEs) as well as the A-levels, and including English and Maths as before. Or do you mean that O-levels then were worth something, compared with now?
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WIWAL (when I were a lad) the timetable was a little different.
Since holding postings didn’t feature, the training was fairly efficient:
First solo was on a Provost T1, the JP not yet being in service.
06 Sep 54 Inducted Cardington
10 Sep 54 ITS Kirton-in-Lindsey
07 Dec 54 3FTS Feltwell, first solo 31 Dec 54
24 Aug 55 8 FTS Swinderby, wings 09 May 56
27 May 56 233 OCU Pembrey first Hunter F1 flight 10 Jul 56 (my 20th birthday)
29 Aug 56 98 Sqn Jever
From catching the train to Cardington, time to;-
First solo almost 17 weeks
First Squadron not quite 2 years.
Sadly, Duncan Sandys spoiled it all on 27 Jul 57 and I suppose the next 30 months at Halton waiting to rejoin the flying RAF could count as a holding posting.
Since holding postings didn’t feature, the training was fairly efficient:
First solo was on a Provost T1, the JP not yet being in service.
06 Sep 54 Inducted Cardington
10 Sep 54 ITS Kirton-in-Lindsey
07 Dec 54 3FTS Feltwell, first solo 31 Dec 54
24 Aug 55 8 FTS Swinderby, wings 09 May 56
27 May 56 233 OCU Pembrey first Hunter F1 flight 10 Jul 56 (my 20th birthday)
29 Aug 56 98 Sqn Jever
From catching the train to Cardington, time to;-
First solo almost 17 weeks
First Squadron not quite 2 years.
Sadly, Duncan Sandys spoiled it all on 27 Jul 57 and I suppose the next 30 months at Halton waiting to rejoin the flying RAF could count as a holding posting.