No.1519 Beam Approach Training Flight - RAF Feltwell

An Airspeed Oxford with the yellow triangle
 livery of the Beam Approach Training Flight.

RAF Feltwell Station Crest - 
Vires Acquirit Eundo - Gains Strength As it Goes

On 14th November 1942, after a week without flying, at least flying that is recorded in his Pilot's Flying Log Book, my Grandfather, Flying Officer Kelsey, was sent to RAF Feltwell to take a course with No. 1519 Beam Approach Training Flight.

The course ran for seven days and included 12 hours flying time as well as 5 hours 15 minutes on the Link Trainer. Please read my previous blog regarding the link trainer.

A Beam Approach Trainer photographed in 1942

It's slightly amazing how rudimentary the tech. was in 1942 to help pilots land safely in poor visibility. With even the most bog standard cars now having Sat. Nav. and parking sensors, the front-line RAF pilot in the War still had to rely on mostly visual aids, such as flares and paraffin lamps, to guide them to an airfield. With the poor British winter weather conditions and high casualty rate of pilots returning from raids, but then crashing when trying to land, something had to be done.

Ironically, the RAF turned to the German Lorenz system to help them locate and land safely at military airfields. This system had been used successfully by the Germans as the Knickebein, or "Crooked Leg" beam to help them bomb very accurately at night during "the Blitz".

The Knickebein system is focussed on in the series called The Secret War (TV series). "The Battle of the Beams" episode deals with the use of beams for navigation and the countermeasures the British 'boffins' used.

Diagram of Beam Approach System

My Grandfather obviously knew nothing of this at the time and had his own troubles trying to get the hang of the Beam Approach System. Put simply, the beam approach (sometimes known as Blind Approach) system relied on two audible signals, Morse A (dit dah) and N (dah dit) which originated from differing parts of the airfield, which was "divided" into four quadrants.  Listening to the signals, the pilot knew which side of the airfield he was flying in from.  When he started hearing both signals of different strengths, he was aware of how close to the centre line he was.  When both signals merged and became a continuous sound, he knew he was "on the beam". Ancillary signals enabled the pilot to land in very poor conditions. This is a huge simplification of what was in fact a complicated set of learned instructions involving many changes of direction and height as well as swift calculations of orientation in response to the audible signals you were receiving. Not easy!

System for Beam Approach landing

I have to thank the following website for much of this information; An Ordinary Crew

My Grandfather took his first Beam Approach flight on 14th November with Sgt Miller as instructor. Subsequent flights were instructed by P/O Neill, S/L Burrell, W/O Driscoll, P/O Jones and finally Sgt. Nicholls. I haven't been able to find any further information about these men. During these flights, the aircraft were kept in the air at controlled heights of 2000, 2500 and 3000 feet.  It was a most demanding course, mostly consisting of taking off up to 100ft or so, at which point the instructor pulled a screen over the trainee's side of the cockpit blacking out everything. From then on flying was by instruments only, guided by the radio beam system until on the final stage of the approach for landing, when the instructor removed the screen.  The "DUTY" column shows the various exercises the pupil would be put through, but I cannot find any reference to what the different numbers mean.

Although this system was basic by today's standards, it was a great leap forward for the time, and undoubtedly saved many lives of the crews who had got lost on their way home from raids over Germany.

RAF Feltwell from the air 1942

The Beam Approach system was undoubtedly a boon to safer landings, but apparently by 1942 not many military airfields were equipped with it and, if conditions we're foggy, the crews would just be diverted to another fog-free airfield!

Inside the cockpit of an Airspeed Oxford 

The wider War at this time can be characterised by Churchill as the "end of the beginning". With the British advances in Morocco, the German attacks stalling at Stalingrad and landings of the Americans in West Africa, it looked as though the allies were turning the tide against the Nazis. In celebration, on Sunday 15th November 1942, church bells were rung up and down the country for the first time since 1940.