My War - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 Grading School.

The leave lasted two weeks. Then we received instructions to report to an air-field near Wolverhampton. We were quartered in large nissen huts, which held about thirty beds. Many of the beds were already occupied so that it was a matter of grabbing a bed where we could. There was none of this marching about now as we were starting to get down to serious business. We spent a week or two having talks. about what was going to happen. They said that we would have 12 hours flying instruction in Tiger Moths with tests after 7 hours and 12 hours. We were told how to swing the propeller and how to do the cockpit checks from warming up the engine to making sure that the engine was not liable to stall during take off. This was done by checking the ‘so called’ mag drop. Each cylinder had two sparking plugs one set at top dead centre and the other 5 degrees in advance of TDC and by switching each set of plugs off in turn the change in revs could be checked. It had to be within a certain range to ensure that the engine would not stall while taking off. During that first two weeks, before we had started flying, one morning, a flight sergeant came in and heading for one chaps bed, announced that he had bought it, and collected all his belongings. I heard later that in fact the instructor was killed and the trainee was seriously injured.
We started flying lessons eventually. Each morning we had to cross the airfield to the flight huts where we hung about waiting to be allocated to an instructor.The planes were Tiger Moths. Which were two seater biplanes with radial engines. The rear cockpit, which is the pilot's position was used by the trainee, and the instructor used the front one, normally the passenger seat, which was fitted with dual controls. The communication was by speaking tube.
The weather was freezing and the ground was absolutely frozen solid so we were only too glad to wear our full flying kit. For my first flight the instructor took me up to a suitable height and said fix your eyes on a cloud and head straight towards it. It was not long before I seemed to have passed that cloud so I found another distinctive cloud and so on until the instructor said I’ve got her and took us in to land. The next time I had a lesson the instructor said “I’ll operate the rudder you operate the throttle and the joy stick and take off when you are ready”. So taking a deep breath I gingerly took hold of the joy stick and opened the throttle and we started to roll. As we gathered speed a voice said get your tail up its still on the ground and the joy stick leapt forward out of my grasp and we were heading strait for some concrete air raid shelters. The voice said get her off the ground you are still on the ground so I moved the stick back slightly and we shot up into the air. After that I had to practice taking off and landing. Learn to handle a stall which gave a feeling that one had left ones stomach behind. This was done by closing the throttle and keeping the plane going along strait and level and at the moment of stall it drops like a stone. Spins which are the same as stalls but at the moment of stall you press the rudder to one side, to go into the spin, and to get out of it it was joy stick forward, and opposite rudder, and power on. I also had a go at loop the loop, that is a bit uncomfortable as all the way up and over all you can see is sky until you start to go down the other side and the land comes into sight again. All this was mostly done in half-hour periods..
At the end of this course we knew that indefinite leave would follow and then we would be going abroad under the empire training scheme for about six months and I wanted to get married before I went. The only means of communication, in those days, was by post, which made things very difficult since I had to guess exactly when I would finish my 12 hours training plus half an hour test. You see the flying was often cancelled due to bad weather and as soon as the test was done we were off on leave. At home they had to book the church for the wedding, the hall for the reception and send out invitations etc. Finally the date was fixed giving me a week to complete the training and I had only half an hour more to do and the test. Well flying was cancelled all week until Friday but then on Friday morning at last I completed the twelve hours and the instructor said hurry up the CO is just ready to do a test. But before I could get to him someone else climbed in so I thought, never mind I will be next. However when he returned the flying was cancelled. Luckily I had asked for permission to marry so I rushed to the orderly room and got a weekend pass form then back to the flying shed to get the officer to authorise it then I had to get to Wolverhampton station for a train. I arrived home at about midnight. The next day the wedding took place. Then I returned to base on Sunday evening and it was another week before I completed that last half-hour and went on leave.

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