The Icelandic connection - 01.12.2020, Síða 17

Vol. 71 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
159
with Bekley in Mono Bristol fighter.
Friday April 26th: Avro 4284 30 mins
dual with Lt. Burton. Paraded at B Flight.
Saturday April 27th: Avro 4284 Lt.
Burton dual 35 mins, dual 25 mins. Burton
said he was pleased with my flying.
Tuesday April 30th: Arose at 5:30 am.
Launched successfully in Sopwith Pup.
Did 35 mins, took off tire.
Thursday April 18th: Arose at 5 am.
Up on Pup 65 mins. Formation flight on
Avro 35 mins. Egyptian Christmas Day.
Friday May 3rd: Sopwith Pup 6057
solo 45 mins.
Tuesday May 7th: Arose 5 am. Up
on Pup 70 minutes solo, went out over
pyramids. Mitchell, one of the Instructors
killed in accident in a Nieuport.
Friday May 13th: Rigging day. Paraded
at 2:30 pm. Transferred to A Flight.
Wednesday May 15th: Arose 7:30 am.
Lucas killed.
We also had an opportunity of
getting in some camera practice, in the
air. Regulations required that we carry a
safety pilot with us whenever we took off
for gun camera practice. This was done so
that we would not collide with our prey;
being absorbed to the full in getting our
target lined up in looking down the gun
barrel sights. The safety pilot was to keep
us a safe distance away, taking over when
necessary. Of course, we had to have one
collision take place before this measure
was thought of.
Out of this rabble constituting Pool
flight grew the School of Aerial Fighting.
Fortunately for me, I was one of the fully
trained pilots on hand at the time so it was
quite logical that I should be grabbed for
one of the jobs at this school. My stay at
S.A.F.,just two months, was all too short.
I enjoyed this work immensely, it was sort
of a membership in a team, competing
in an exciting dangerous sport. We, the
Instructors had to keep on our toes, the
final test of our work was the final bout
between ourselves and our pupils armed
with gun cameras flying solo.
The issue here was could we afford to
let a student record direct hits with his gun
camera and thus show up our evasive tactics
and flying, or should we fly rings around
him and send him back to earth with a
blank film. Arguments waged long and loud
in the Mess at nights, and I don’t think the
right answer was ever decided upon, but I
do recall wagers on the best group of shots
for the day. The winner of course being the
one with the best concentrated spray in
vulnerable spots.These winners were usually
active participants in sports and had “above
average” flying ability. Even at this stage in
flying training, the value of participation
in active sports of all kinds was becoming
evident.
Up to now, flying training followed
no set pattern, each Instructor used his
own method and consequently there was a
lot of wasted time in the air. Some would
spend hours on landings, with the pupil
only in control on the actual landing. Hence
the pupils could make beautiful landings
consistently but were hopeless in the air and
would not even venture a turn to the right.
Anyhow it was not the kind of training
that “active service” pilots ‘should’ have.
From this hopeless inadequacy in training
developed the need for a standardized
form of instruction. And so, the “Gosport
system” was inaugurated in the formation of
the Flying Instructors School (F.I.S) This
school was located on a new ’drome just a
few miles South of Heliopolis.
I had had considerable front seat flying
{as a pilot) at S.A.F. and had been tested by
a Lt. Dobbie, who came out from Gosport
England to train and gather a staff for
the new School. Out of some two dozen
Instructors at S.A.F., another Canadian and
myself were chosen to go to the new school
on May 25th, 1918. This was a big event in