Barefoot to Boeings: Memoirs of a jet jockey by Karen Guest

Author:Karen Guest [Guest, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Karen Guest
Published: 2016-01-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13 – The training captain’s creed

By early February 1965, Brian was endorsing captains who had been recently posted to New Guinea operations. As he remembered his occasional unhappy experience and shortcomings of endorsing captains, he vowed to make a thorough confidence-building job of his endorsements. This he enjoyed doing as it helped him adopt a better understanding in explaining techniques to others. He emphasised the recognition of the various gaps in the mountains by identifying two features, whereby he pointed out how even familiar looking country can fool anyone in bad weather.

An example is an area called Popondetta, which was surrounded by disused airstrips where Australian soldiers fought so gallantly, suffering enormous casualties. The area across to Kokoda is relatively flat, and Brian had flown over it at a tree-top height to get an appreciation of the appalling conditions the Australian troops fought in. The Kokoda airstrip, grass covered and flanked by palm trees, allowed pilots to takeoff to the north and land to the south due to the ranges at the southern end. Flying back to Moresby is via the Kokoda Gap, which roughly follows the Kokoda Track, where the mountains are shrouded in cloud and the ridges and valleys look similar. The Kokoda Gap gorge is difficult to negotiate in cloudy weather but is identified by a triangular patch of short kunai grass and a solitary indigenous hut.

When John Rosenberg finally advised Brian of his appointment as training captain, Brian smiled as he had always tried to make his training trips well worth it for the trainee and he remembered what was taught to him in his first officer days. Brian felt that when training a pilot to command status he didn’t want a clone, but a commander who was taught to think in their own way. His first session was with Alex Johnston, a capable pilot, for DC3 command. Brian started by being helpful and co-operative, unobtrusively pulling back as confidence was gained. Gradually, he would introduce deliberate omissions and errors until eventually he would be pulled into line. This had to be done carefully so it wasn’t obvious and when he was spoken to sharply to smarten up his attitude, he knew he had been successful.

Every pilot seems to suffer one or two minor problems that affect their confidence. For Brian, this was with Laurie Mackay as he went through a bad patch with his landings. Alex was having trouble with instrument takeoffs and Brian just couldn’t seem to pin down the solution. He discussed this with John Rosenberg and as Alex was due for licence renewal requirements for his annual three-night circuits, John suggested he ride in the jump seat. John gave Alex an instrument takeoff and he immediately spotted the problem and quietly corrected him. His two subsequent takeoffs on instruments were perfect. Brian believed that the way he could judge when a student was ready for a final command check is when he would let his family fly with them.

Not long after,

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