COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER EIGHT IN A QUANDARY
afternoon.
Exposure to a variety of aircraft was a wholly new experience and
the ability to switch rapidly from one type to another became essential.
Limited conversion training was provided. But pilot's notes, and a
short spell sitting in the cockpit, was the norm. If you couldn't cope on
that basis it was too bad. Forget about test flying. In practice the whole
thing soon became second nature and flying skills sharpened up no
end.
Increasingly you became aware of the different features, the
strengths and the weaknesses of each design. This awakening of a more
critical and questioning approach was vitally important. The very
reverse of squadron practice, where each pilot subconsciously adjusts
his technique to the characteristics of his aircraft, and familiarity
blinds him to its deficiencies.
Moving from aircraft to aircraft, combined with the introduction
of various exercises, soon demonstrated the demands which test flying
could impose. You were expected to fly a new type, on very short
acquaintance, with sufficient ease and accuracy to carry out any
required programme. And, as if that were not enough, to observe and
record, and subsequently to report your findings verbally and in
writing. No auto observers or voice recorders either at this stage in the
game.
You soon discovered that the value of a test pilot, however brilliant
his performance in the air, was almost akin to his ability to
communicate the results of his work in concise and lucid fashion. And
so report writing became a vital and major chore. Many an evening
was spent working away after dinner, sometimes far into the night,
extracting data from the ubiquitous knee pad with its stopwatch and
grubby roll of paper. Reports followed a standard format, which
became second nature, until your mind conjured up the headings as
you fell asleep each night. The same headings appeared on your knee
pad too - as an aid memoire for your training.
From that time onwards I never approached a new type without
that same mental check list - and never walked away from it without
at least some notes under each heading. If only for my own benefit I
had to record my thoughts on its salient features. In a few short weeks
I had acquired the habit of a lifetime.
The policy on type conversion, where for the most part we had to
cope on our own, meant that we saw relatively little of Sandy Powell
and his team. Although they were probably watching us carefully. This
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