WINGS UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 10

WINGS UP

THE EXCHANGE PLAN

LETTER FROM WELLINGTON BOY

IN THE R.A.F.

During the past twelve months quite a number of New Zealand pilottrainees have gone to England under the Royal Air Force exchange system, and generally have done remarkably well in the intensive training courses at the various Royal Air Force stations. Others have passed through their first periods of training and have been drafted to overseas stations, all a part of the Empire system of air defence, as will be the R.N.Z.A.F. when its training has been brought to the high stage of efficiency aimed at and the high-speed long-range Vickers Wellington bombers arrive in New Zealand. Those bombers are to be flown from England and will be manned, in part at any rate, by New Zealanders who are at present completing their training with the R.A.F. " An inside story of what is done by New Zealand pilots and trainees in the Royal Air Force is given in the following letter from one of them to his« friend and one-time chief in the New Zealand Air Force:— OFFICERS' MESS, Royal Air Force, Sealand, Near Chester. I have at last found an opportunity of sending you some news of the first "batch" of New Zealanders to obtain S.S. Commissions in the R.A.F. under the new scheme. i We all spent about twelve weeks together at the same civil training schoolnear Northampton, where, besides obtaining our "A" licences, we did an average of sixty hours on Tiger Moths ; This course included "blind flying" training in addition to the usual ab initio training. We were also kept very busy with our lectures, especially navigation. We had the usual damage to undercarriages, etc., but on the whole we had a really trouble-free time. NEW ZEALANDERS DO WELL. When the results of the examinations came out after we had reached flying training schools, the first few places were filled by New Zealanders. After two weeks at Uxbridge while our uniforms were being made and fitted by various London tailors, we were sent to our respective R.A.F. flying training schools. Here our party of eighteen New Zealanders was broken up, half going to Hullavington, in Wiltshire, and the remainder of us coming to Sealand. I believe at Hullavington Avro Ansons are used for training as well as Harts, but here we have only Harts and Audaxes. We all managed to qualify for our "wings" at the end of our junior term (of thirteen weeks), and have now done a month in our senior term. Once again when the results of the examina-

tions for our "wings" came out, the top places were filled by the lads from down under.' Our. flying training during the junior term was very comprehensive, and included night flying with the use of the flarepath only (no flood lights) and also landing with the use of wing-tip flare. In the senior term we become what is known as the "advanced training squadron." Our training consists of purely practical flying, e.g., photography, bombing, air firing (with camera guns, fixed and free), and more advanced navigation and night flying. Tonight as I am writing some of the lads are flying round getting in their hours at night, and in some cases doing their night "cross-countries." I flew up to Blackpool last night, which entailed passing right over the centre of Liverpool. It was a wonderful sight, though low clouds kept me down under two thousand feet most of the time.

Last week one of our fellows had a very lucky escape. After practising diving on a ground target with a camera gun, he did a steep turn at two hundred feet, allowed his speed to fall too low, lost control, and spun into the ground in an Audax. He was almost unhurt and was able to scramble out and run about thirty yards before the wreck caught fire. It was totally destroyed, but he escaped with a few slight bruises. WHERE FOG IS FOG. Our junior term here was right in the middle of winter, and some of the days we left the ground we could scarcely see the fence at the end of the aerodrome. I think all the fogs in England start from Sealand! To qualify for our "wings" we had to do two cross-countries of at least 200 miles. The first one I did entailed crossing the huge industrial areas in the, Midlands, where the atmosphere is notoriously thick. The day I went, out of about seven of us who set out during the day, two made forced landings through, being lost. At times we could see about a mile ahead from a thousand feet! Several days later, out of seven who set out, three arrived at their destination and were refused permission to return home that day; two turned back and arrived home safely, and two made successful forced landings in fields. On still a third occasion two did the trip and return successfully and three made forced landings through being lost and short of petrol. No machines were damaged, but one fellow landed in such a field in amongst the Welsh Hills that it was impossible to fly his machine out, so it was dismantled, taken by road to the nearest R.A.F. station, reassembled, and flown home! We did not see this fellow for about a week, and he is now known as the "old man of the mountain." FLY HERE, FLY ANYWHERE. One fairly hazy morning a thick fog blew in from the Irish Sea in a few minutes, and one pupil who was caught up in it, after several unsuccessful attempts to locate the aerodrome (we could hear him flying round) flew ahead of the fog and landed in a field some miles away. The machine stayed there till the fog lifted sufficiently, late in the afternoon, and an instructor flew the machine back again. An instructor once told me that if I could fly in England I could fly anywhere in the world —I believe him. Sometimes I think of the time I flew over to the West Coast in a Vildebeest with Mr. at the helm, when we were able to see both coasts of the South Island at once. What a difference from flying conditions here!