The Beast You Had To Get In
Heroes Remember
The Beast You Had To Get In
Transcript
Initially you’d join up for aircrew and you passed the medical.
Then the key thing there was the Link Trainer and that was the
beast that you had to get in and you were shown how to do it and
if your coordination was good enough and you didn’t spin in and
wreck yourself. And particularly when they closed the hood, then
you would go on as a pilot trainee. If you flunked that then
you’d still stay in aircrew but you’d go into the streams for
navigator, bomber-aimer, whatever. The Link Trainer was like a
simulator built by a man by the name of Link in the States and
it was like the simulators they have today, very sophisticated.
This was a stubby little machine with little wings – blue – if I
remember correctly, or grey. You got into and it’s like a
cockpit. You had a control stick. You had your rudder pedals.
You had basic instruments and it was all powered actually, I
think, by air and bellows. But they could put in turbulence and
so on. And they give you direction and you’d turn. You could
climb and dive and climb and you had to watch the instruments
and you could spin them and you’d crash, sort of thing. It was
the... and we did this all the way through. You did because they
could simulate different courses and approaches and so on and
that was part of our training to get our wings. And even when I
was instructing you had to go in the Link Trainer to do some
procedures and so on. It was, as I said, it was the beast that
you had to overcome. That was the initial hurtle. And everybody
wanted to be a pilot. But if you did that ... and of course
other people got washed out later because of air sickness ...
what have you. But that was the start of it.
Description
Mr. Fox describes the Link Trainer, a device used to test a recruit’s suitability for pilot training.
Charley Fox
Mr. Fox was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1920. He signed up in March, 1940, and was called up the following October. Mr. Fox excelled during pilot training, but a bout of scarlet fever prevented him from accompanying his squadron overseas. Once returned to health, he became a flight instructor, during which time he married. A short time later, he was sent overseas and joined the 412 Spitfire Squadron. He was involved in air support for D-Day and flew many follow-up missions destroying “targets of opportunity” in France and Holland. After the war, Mr. Fox returned home and became a retailer. He now resides in London, Ontario.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 2:06
- Person Interviewed:
- Charley Fox
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Canada
- Branch:
- Air Force
- Units/Ship:
- 412 Spitfire Squadron
- Rank:
- Aircraftman 2nd Class / Flight Lieutenant
- Occupation:
- Pilot
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