Aircrew: The Story of the Men Who Flew the Bombers by Lewis Bruce

Author:Lewis, Bruce [Lewis, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Leo Cooper
Published: 1991-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Francis had the highest regard for his instructor, Lieutenant Slater. He inspired confidence, was very fair, and told his ‘star’ pupil that he had bet on him getting an ‘above average’ assessment at the end of the course. Then the blow fell. On Monday, 6 July Francis was transferred to another Flight and came under the supervision of a different instructor, Lieutenant Williams. It seemed that for Williams he could do nothing right. What particularly upset him was that his new instructor, from whom he found it impossible to learn anything, blamed his ‘lack of progress’ on his previous tuition.

Friday July 10th. Today I went on a dual X Country. I went straight from lectures to the hangar … as soon as he saw me he started his moaning. Told me to ‘wake up’. Those were not the actual words he used but that was the meaning. I obtained the wind and computed the course and we emplaned. Unfortunately when we were taxiing to the down-wind edge I dropped my pencil in the cockpit and could not find it. This set him off good and proper. He asked me ETAs but as soon as I attempted to work one out he would ask me what particular landmark was this or that. When I had told him, he would ask what the ETA was. I’ d reply, I’m just working it out. Off he went again, ‘Wake up! We haven’t all day,’ and so on. This continued all the way and when we arrived and got out he started on me again about my bad ETAs, (The worst one was 3 minutes out.) Coming back the same thing happened, only I had to do the piloting as well.

This time I gave him a really bad ETA, 13 minutes out, so I got it good and strong. I felt like saying, ‘Turn this plane upside down and I’ll drop out’. Altogether the whole trip took 2½ hours and he was moaning the whole time. I see I’m going up dual with him on Monday. If he moans all that period I’m going to ask for a change of instructor. I haven’t learned a thing since I started flying with him. All I’ ve had is mental torture.

Monday July 20th. Went up with another instructor this morning, Lieutenant Beattie. He complimented me on my steep turns and half-roll off the top of a loop. Took our final exams in Navigation Theory and Plotting, and Signals Procedure.

Saturday July 25th. Passed my Morse Receiving at 10 words per minute. We then had to read the lamp at 8 words per minute. I never could read the lamp, so I got a colleague to read it for me. … The reading of the lamp is the first exam I have ever manipulated. This was necessary because, although I can read morse quite well, my eyes water when staring at it. I’m afraid that if my eyes are examined again, I shall be taken off aircrew.

Saturday August 1st.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.