First Solo

So the big moment dawned. This was going to be the test to see if H.C.Kelsey could cut it in the R.A.F. There were usually eighty trainees on the course but only forty would go forward. You were expected to go solo on the Tiger Moth at around 8 hours, certainly not more than 10. Otherwise you would be "scrubbed" and posted to a navigator's course or air gunner or bomb aimer and the likes. One after another, men would come in joyously saying they had gone solo and then there were those with long faces that said one word "scrubbed" and then were gone the next day. 

From his Log Book, it looks as though my Grandfather had hit it right on time at 8hrs 10 minutes for his first 'Solo'. He was taken up for his 'Solo Test' by Sgt. Pawson on 14th March and perhaps Sgt Pawson recommended a bit more practise on 'Gliding Approach and Landing'? Then on 15th March 1941 he was up there alone for the first time, what a feeling that must have been! I can just imagine his beaming face when he landed and ran off to boast to his mates that he had done it..."Gone Solo".

Meanwhile, the War was hitting Scotland, as the 14/15th March saw the "Clydeside Blitz".