IN AIR FORCE BLUE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 4 December 1940, Page 10

IN AIR FORCE BLUE

1 MEN WHO KEEP THE PLANES [ FIT l in. TECHNICAL TRAINING AT RONGOTAI I f “Scores of times after a tough trip I have patted my aircraft as s one does his horse and shaken my ' engineers by the hand in gratitude. It is the appreciation of the pilot of 5 those who make his task possible.” In those words one of New Zealand’s most experienced pilots paid his tribute to the ground staffs, the men who keep the ’planes fit and faithful. If their aircraft were not in perfect flying condition the most intrepid airmen would find their daring unavailing. Air crews can perform outstanding feats, face heavy odds, and carry the war into the enemy’s territory because they have perfect confidence in the work, carried out, far away from the limelight, but not out of the range of enemy bombs, by the flight mechanics and flight riggers. These men are at the foundations of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and it takes the service of ten of them to keep a flier in the air. To them is given a course of training as exacting as that given to other tranches, and the station at Rongotai, housed in the old Centennial Exhibition buildings in Wellington, is a hive of industry, a great school where enthusiasm keeps seven hundred men going at keen speed. EXHIBITION TRANSFORMED Hardly had the Centennial Exhibition closed its doors before the Air Force began transforming it into a centre of wartime activity. Recruits were quickly poured in, and every pupil of the first batch passed his final tests to accredit him for aerodrome duty. This was made possible through extra lectures voluntarily attended after the completion of the official day’s work and in private “swatting”. Charles E. Wheeler in one of his articles on the Dominion’s air force, makes it clear that the enthusiasm which infected the first batch persists at Rongotai. WingCommander White, who is the O.C. of the station, is a man who has a sincere appreciation of the engineer’s work as the basis of safe aviation. He had 25 years as a pilot. “I had flown a distance equal to twenty-seven times round the earth,” he wrote in a recent tribute to the ground services at the aerodromes. “I am proud of that record and it was made possible through the splendid co-operation I have at all times received from my ground engineers.” Harewood is the intake centre for the ground services. There recruits spend a month, during which they obtain eqiupment, the beginnings of technical knowledge and go through their squad drill. The mechanics and riggers then proceed to Rongotai for an intensive course of eighteen weeks. TECHNICAL TRAINING SCHOOL Visitors to the Exhibition will recall the lofty and spacious southern wing devoted to land transport. The whole of this area is now divided into lecture rooms and workshops, some at the southern end where the Maori house stood which is a hanger to accommodate aircraft for instructional purposes. In this section is the New Zealand Technical Training School of the Air Force, directed by Squadron-Leader Manhire. Flight mechanics who go through the advanced course are able to undertake complete overhauls of engines at base workshops. They are designated Riggers 2 E. Riggers have an advanced course in air frames and can carry through the complete overhaul on air frames. They bear the designation Rig--2 A. Every recruit to the Technical Training School has a preliminary educational course in arithmetic, machine drawing, theory of flight and physics. As in other phrases of Air Force instruction, there is a blending of theory and practice. Accuracy in the use of tools is essential and one of the first jobs undertaken by the recruit is to cut a square section of steel with a hacksaw and then, with file and steel square, to put on a good level face with square edges—a simple job until one tries it. As the course advances, the flight mechanics study aeroplane engines, examining and pulling to pieces and reassembling several service types. Every part is closely studied and the instruction is thorough. The more spectacular dissection of aircraft is given to the riggers who pull planes to pieces, examine or repair them and then put them together again. When they have completed their job, the machine goes to the advanced riggers who, having assembled possibly a radial engine with its complications, have to fit it into the air frame and connect up all the controls. The art of “truing up” is well taught at Rongotai, according to Mr Wheeler, who adds that in future all flight riggers are to be taught parachute folding. AIR FORCE’S CENTRAL STORE One of the largest wings of the old Exhibition building has been found too small for the requirements of the R.N.Z.A.F. central stores. From aircraft engines down to the smallest bolt, stores are here in orderly array with a system of accounting which not only prevents loss but enables stocks of any item to be ascertained at a moment’s notice. Probably there is no place in the country where so many tools can be found. It is the duty of this section to make up sets of tools for every class of ground personnel. The metal worker who qualifies in the R.N.Z.A.F. has issued to him in a strong tool-box all the hand tools he will need; the fitter’s box is equally complete and there are ready-made knits awaiting the future wireless operator who incidentally will draw all his spares from Rongotai. The station is also the centre of communications section of the service. Many aircraft, formerly owned by aero clubs and some once used by passenger companies, constitute a fleet at the disposal of executive officers of ail arms of the defence service. The machines are maintained and overhauled at Rongotai and their jobs are vanea. Cooperation work with the army to test the efficiency of anti-aircraft defence is another function of communicati-nj.