DOMINION AIRMEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 7

DOMINION AIRMEN

TRAINING IN ENGLAND "A GOOD JOB OF WORK” LONDON, Dec. 15. “New Zealanders are doing a good job of work. Fellows who are keen enough to come to England all the way from the Dominion are obviously men with a certain amount of ambition. We generally find that they are exceptionally alert and that reports from their squadron commanders say that they are doing their jobs very well.” This opinion was expressed yesterday by the chief ground instructor at one of the many flying training schools in Britain where New Zealanders are qualifying for the Royal Air Force. There are at present some hundreds of New Zealanders serving with the Royal Air Force, and at this particular flying training school is the last batch of men sent to England under the short-service commission scheme. They are:—Acting-Pilot Officers O. Tracey, Dunedin, J. Verran, R. Short, Auckland, R. G. Hall, J. E. Bentley, Wellington, T. D. Robison, Invercargill, E. Edmonds, Eltham, and C. Holmes, Hamilton. Their training is practically identical with that of all the other New Zealanders who have gone before them. The flying training schools may be regarded as the “universities” of the Royal Air Force. In a course lasting 20 weeks the pilots get their “wings,” become experienced airmen and are moulded into the pattern required. From the flying training school the qualified pilot is posted to a squadron where his actual service begins.