1941 - Initial Training School

This was in early January, and here again a bunch of new people, some of the ones we had met before. Everybody wanted to be pilots. This was the first time they actually took us apart and interviewed us. And some of the guys were taken away to be navigators, and we thought this was terrible you know. Maybe the ones that were selected to be navigators were ex teachers or more fitting for them. But it was whatever was required you see. And finally we were sent to flying school. And I went with a group to Edmonton, elementary at Edmonton which was great. And they gave us fur flying suits, and boots and we started with the Tiger Moss. It’s strange how it just seemed to fit together. This is what we were gonna do. And I had never been in an aeroplane before, and it all started with these strange words you know. The gas, and the (inaudible). Everything was different, there was no word that matched anything else you had ever done. It took a few days to fit all this in, apart from what the aeroplane was doing. But the instructors were very very patient with us, and polite and everything. So I guess they wanted to train us. And some people would catch on real quick to certain things, and other things they would have difficulty with. And some were natural, you could tell they were natural. You just fit it in the thing. And you were supposed to solo in 10 hours, or there was maybe a bit of a problem. And most of them would meet the 10 hours. There was a few things that I couldn’t quite understand in flying business, guiding the aeroplane around, but most of it came quite naturally. And it wasn’t long after we soloed, which is one of the biggest things in a person’s life to go up, and be in the air alone. You’ve got to land this aeroplane you see. There is no more fooling around. If you want to live, do things right, you’ve got to land this aeroplane. And this is the first real test see, can you do it?