FIGHTER PILOTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 29 October 1941, Page 6

FIGHTER PILOTS

HOW R.A.A.F. PICKS ITS MEN 1 I STOPPING UP FROM TIGUK MOTHS ' ! Fighter pilots in Australia’are chosen 1 ' before they have tloun anything heavier [ or faster than Tiger Moths. Squadron commanders and instructors select the men who w ill lly the fast single-engined ’ machines while they are still at elementary flying training schools, states ’ a defence correspondent of the "Syd--1 ney Morning Herald’ The young pilots are assessed by the way they lly their Moths and by the kind of men they are. There are some qualifications that all pilots need, but the solid, steady, imperturbable man is likely to hi* allotted to bombers, while the man with an extra share of dash, the man who thinks and acts quickly, enjoys speed for its own sake, likes working alone, will al- . most certainly become a tighter pilot. Trainees arc asked at the beginning . of their flying career to state a prefer- . ence for fighters or bombers. Nearly , every would-be tighter pilot who can ; explain his preference says he prefers [ to be "or. his own.” Nearly every man who wants to fly a bomber says it is • because they do more damage. A pro--1 portion of would-be fighter pilots ex--1 presses a distaste for bombing. "I pre- - fer to meet a man face to face." these SEPARATE SCHOOLS ’ Once allotted to fighters a trainee parts company with inose of his fellows ‘ who have been chosen as pilots of multi-engined machines. They go to [ one service training school, he goes to • another He will be a fighter pilot for ■ the duration of the war. There is no • time to give pilots all-round training ! in the more leisurely pre-war manner. and little to be gained by doing so. It is a big occasion when the trainee moves from an elementary training ; school to a service training school. He ! is going into a service-type aircraft at 1 last. He will exchange a Tiger Moth. with a 130-horsepower engine, for a . Wirraway, with a 550-horsepower engine, twice the speed of a Moth and twice its landing speed. The Wirraway has all the typical qualities of a modern fighter, and if he learns to fly and ' fight it he will need only a short "conversion course” to transfer to any - fighter type. 0 HIGH STANDARDS A percentage of each batch of pilots fails to pass the test at the service 1 school. Some of those who fail be- , come observers or air gunners, and go on to other schools for specialist training. with their interrupted Hying training as a very useful background. Some ask to be allowed t*> take their discharge from the Air Force and join the Army. Some take on the arduous job of Ling Trainer instructors, and teach pupils in the ingenious machine ! on which pupils learn instrument and blind flying technique on the ground. ' shut up in a stub fuselage whose controls reproduce faithfully the movements of actual flight. At Service Flying Training School the trainee is promoted to a cubicle of his own. instead of a bed and locketin a dormitory. He no longer wears his name on the chest of his overalls. LEARNING TO FIGHT When he arrives at Service Flying Training School the fighter pilot is posted to the Intermediate Training Squadron, where he learns to fly a Wirraway. lie does a long crosscountry flight, considerable night flying. as night flying is becoming more and more important on service. But flying a fighter type like the Wirraway, the instructors say, is only a means to an end. not an end in itself. After the term in the Intermediate Training Squadron the trainee passes out to the Advanced Training Squadron, where the pilot is taught to use his machine as a weapon. It is at this stage that the pilot obtains his wings, and, to his great relief, lectures cease; but receiving wings is the great thing. "It gives you a feeling you’ve never had before,” said one newly-winged trainee. "You find yourself walking with one shoulder sticking forward. All you want to do is to get home on leave and show your wings off.” The young pilot feels much closer' to the real thing in the Advanced Train

ing Squadron. He is talight by pilots who have not necessarily t#**n through the school for instructors but who do know fighter tactics. Some of them are, pilots who have seen action in Europe or the Middle East and have learnt their . job in actual fights and ground-st rating, sorties at the front. Some wear, below j i their wings, the blue-and while ribbon J r of the D.F.C. BOMBS TO DROP • The most eagerly awaited event of the four weeks in the Advanced Train-; s ing Squadron is the pilots flight, in; formation, to the bombing and gunnery school. In the case of pilots training , at schools in the Riverina this means Hying to a school in Victoria. There. I each pilot attacks targets with live . bombs and live ammunition. He will - dive on towed sleeve •targets and fire i rounds into them, dive and fire at a s ground target. lie will do some high s dive bombing, releasing his bombs at - the targets alter diving 4.000 feet. To save the time which would be spent on ’ bringing the towed target down after! each man’s shoot, each of a group of, pilots colours his bullets with a diller--1 ent tint which marks any holes he . v . j In preparation for this final prac tice with guns spraying live ammunition, the pilot will have made many . attacks on towed targets with the , camera gun at his home school, where bullets may not be fired for fear of hitting people or stock. There, too, 'he will have dropped innocuous 8).lb ‘ practice bombs which make smoke j: when they hit but carry no explosive. ) By the time a trainee reaches flying ( training school he is graded as leading . aircraftsman. If he is unmarried his , pay is Ids 9d, including deferred pay , and ration allowance. When he gra-l ’ duates. whether as pilot officer or sergeant pilot, he is promoted to 16s a day. 1 ; made up of i2s pay. 4s “flying margin," • and. in addition, he receives Is 9d • ration allowance.