Evening star., 1941-01-05
Flying Instructors
Do Bit for Britain
Without Glory
They Scoot for Home
With Pupils When
Jerry Comes
BY GODFREY H. P. ANDERSON
Associated Press War Correspondent

schools dotted behind the front lint
about the English countryside moy
bask in some glory-but it's only
reflected glory.
Prime Minister Winston Church.
Ill wasn't thinking of them wher
he described Britain's young airmer
as knights of the air.
They get none of the glamol
which surrounds the fighter and
bomber pilots. They never swoor
over Berlin. They never get the
chance to shoot down Dornier, a
Heinkel or a Messerschmitt. In
fact they never even see Nazi.
when Jerry comes we make for
home" one said "It's our job to
get our pupil safely back and live
to fly another day"
After all, they are doing their bit
Just the same. Brltaln's bomber
force is expanding rapidly, helped
by an increasing number of ma
chimes from the United States. and
the instructors must have ready the
men to fly them.
Share Reflected Glory.
The chief flying instructor at this
station, a South African squadron
leader whose first pupil was fol-
low South African who recently
won his Distinguished Flying Cross.
explained how the instructors work:
First of all we have to find out
just how pupil ticks. We watch
the speed of his reactions and often
can tell almost at once just how
good-or bad-a pilot he will be.
Then we must gain his confidence.
That is the most important thing
of all. After that-Well, We Just
try to pump into him all we know
And here it's not always the best
pilot who makes the best teacher" J"
Most instructors, he added, take
It almost as their own failure when
a pupil fails to reach the required
standard and is grounded" as un-
share in the reflected glory of an
old pupils triumphs.
In fact" sighed one its the only
sort of fun we get"
There are many pupils in this
school with an establishment great
deal larger to make sure they have
the best training that can be de-
vised for them.
AS all the pupils here will grad
uate as bomber pilots after their
course, the training is carried out
on twin-engined Airspeed Oxford
monoplanes.
They come here from the ele-
mentary flying training school,
where they have learned the rou-
tine business of flying aircraft on
q lighter single-engined machine.
In the dual-control OXfords the
pupil sitting side by side with his
teacher, faces for the first time the
imposing mass of instruments
carried by a service aircraft, learns
how to use his trimming tabs stars
night flying, formation work, cross
country navigation, blind flying,
signals, elementary bombing.
Learns in Crash Proof Plane.
In the flight room where he pulls
on his flying suit and buckles his
parachute, sign headed "Ye Rules
for Flying Schools" warns in semi
Biblical language of offenses he
must not commit.
Some samples:
Beware the man who taketh on
without looking behind him, Tor
there is no health in this. verify
say unto you: His days are num-
bered.
He who breaketh an undercar-
riage in a forced landing in time
may be forgiven. but he who taxieth
into another plane shall be desplsed
forever.
"As a plate of cold soup, yes, even
as a kiss from ones sister, so also Is
a fight without purpose or objec-
tive, it lacketh kick"
With these warnings ringing IN
his ears, the young pupil starts to
learn about the oxford in plane
he cannot crash Mounted on
trestles. it never leaves the ground.
But in this he learns the uses OF his
instruments and just why it's so
important to lower the retractable
undercarriage when he is going
to land.
Cross Country Practice.
Extraordinary the number who
forget about their landing wheels
at this stage" one instructor said,
but proper cockpit instruction in
sures they don't forget when they
really fly"
When able to fly without the in
structor, the pupil is given skeleton
lied maps and sent off cross-country
to a distant obiectiv just as if he
were really on bombing raid.
The maps show him his objective,
which he must photograph or other
wise describe in detail but it shows
him nothing of the intervening
country over which he must fly by
his instruments alone. But he car
ries a set of sealed maps "just in
case he gets hopelessly lost"
Bombing is practiced by radio sig
nal or lamp flash. AS the plane
flies over its target" officers watch
ing below can judge to within few
feet the accuracy of the bombing
by checking the exact position or
the plane at the time the pilot sig
mails he has released his imaginary
bombs
Others Get All the Fun.
81 think bomber pilots require
more cool courage than the fighter
men," the chief flying instructor
said. The fighter pilot goes up and
shoots down his opponent while
he's hot. It's all over in a few min
utes, and he's back on the airdrome.
But the bomber pilot has to 60
perhaps a thousand miles or more,
often in appalling weather condi-
tions and knowing that at best he
will meet anti-aircraft and search
lights, at worst perhaps an enemy
pursuit plane, which may be faster
and more deadly in armament than
his bomber as we'll as having the
advantage Of operating near its
home base. And when at last he has