Happy 22nd Birthday Grandad - War Still Not Over - October 1942

Pilot's Flying Log Book Oct. 1942

My Grandfather spent his 22nd birthday training at 3(P)AFU RAF South Carney, with two flights in a twin engined airplane called an Airspeed Oxford. His first flight, probably in the morning, was instructed by F/Lt Warren and involved the number 6 cross-country course. There and home the cross-country course took two and a half hours, and with the top speed of an Airspeed Oxford being 192mph, this was approximately a 400 mile round trip.

This course would have relied on the pilot navigating via landmarks, dead reckoning, experience of the area and some luck. All the time the instructor would be noting down your errors and trying to distract you and put you off your calculations. I think the British trainee pilots had an advantage here, compared to the Commonwealth and allied trainee pilots, because they were used to the different and sometimes rapidly changing weather conditions and the more complicated navigational requirements of "patchwork" England.

1942 RAF Map of South Cerney Area

Referring back to Ken Fentons War Blog. that I mentioned in my last blog., Sgt Stephen Johnson gives his recollections of cross-country training.

‘After some time of flying solo we were passed fit to carry a passenger and used to go up with another pupil pilot to do navigation and cross-country flights. I was extremely lucky in being paired off with Arthur Innes who was the only pupil on that course to be assessed as exceptional in the final classification. I was at the same time placed as above average’

‘There was at that time a great shortage of pilots and the courses were being pushed through just as hard as possible. We were sent off on cross-country flights without wireless on some pretty bad days, with visibility only a mile or two and a very low cloud base. On one occasion we never saw the ground at all for about 2 hours. Luckily when we returned on our dead reckoning course we found a gap in the cloud and pinpointed ourselves not very far from where we expected to be.’

‘Being lost while flying an aeroplane is a most unpleasant feeling. When alone you are apt to panic just at the time when it is most essential to remain calm and try to work out where you are. One of the difficulties is that you can’t stop and look at the map. If it takes you about 5 minutes trying to match what you see on the ground with your map you have to remember to look for somewhere else on the map because even at 120 mph you have gone some ten miles. Luckily the South of England was covered with aerodromes where you could land if truly lost. If you did land as a pupil you were not allowed to take off again until your instructor came and fetched you. This wasn’t at all popular. Before the war and again now it is comparatively easy to fly down low and read the names off a railway station but just to be difficult they covered them up during the war and also filled all likely looking large fields with poles which caused little if any disadvantage to the enemy but a great deal of inconvenience to fledgling pilots.’

The second flight my Grandfather took was again with F/Lt Warren and of 1 hour 10 minute duration, involving a couple of exercises and an Instrument Flight(IF).

This would involve pulling a hood over the trainee pilot to obscure any view out of the cockpit and then relying on the instruments to get you back to the airfield. This would be used in conjunction with more training on the link trainer, to simulate night flying with all lamps off.

Airspeed Oxford instrument panel.

Again, I rely on Sgt. Stephen Johnson to let us know what it was like to fly like this,

‘Instrument flying was an important part of our training. We had started on a link trainer at Perth (EFTS) and at Brize Norton we spent a considerable time in one. This was an excellent machine for simulating the conditions of instrument flying and quite invaluable: but it was not the same as actual flight, for there was no feeling of motion to combat. It is a funny thing, flying an aircraft by instruments when you cannot see out at all. You are faced with two alternatives; either you believe what your instruments tell you or you can believe what your own sense of balance and feeling of movement tell you. If you do the later you are killed almost at once. The reason for this is quite simple. If you blindfold someone and put him on a revolving music stool and start revolving him to the right he will say, ‘l am turning to the right’. If after a few moments you stop he will feel that he is turning to the left. In an aircraft if the pilot believes his feelings he will start turning to the right again to counteract it. I believed the instruments. Some people did not.’

I just hope that after this hazardous birthday, my Grandfather treated himself to a pint or two and a singalong with his pals in the local pub.