MAKING AIRMEN AT OHAKEA

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 42, 13 November 1940, Page 9

MAKING AIRMEN AT OHAKEA

Dominion’s Busiest Airfield WHERE PILOTS WIN THEIR WINGS Ohakea Air .Station provides one of the most vivid examples of the great development of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Planned in peacetime for home defence, its two immense concrete hangars were to bouse Wellington bombers. But war accelerated the pace tremendously: the Wellington bombers were used in active service over the Continent, ami instead of two hangars there are now five, a proportion being required for maintenance work. The station was planned on spacious lines, but expansion for war needs has been so rapid that except for the landing field there is not. much room unoccupied in its site of nearly a square mile. • i i Foundations of air service knowledge baviny been provided in the elementary training stations, the young airman has done perhaps 50 hours’ living, halt solo and half dual. He is now ready for intermediate and advanced courses at Obakea or other R.N.Z.A.I'. stations. Half the time of the airman at Olmkea is occupied with lectures, (lie other half living in service aircraft. Two months' are spent in the intermediate stage. One flying instructor is provided for four or five pupils, and he spends his day in the air. Single and multi-engined aircraft are used, the air is alive with machines throughout the day. Their roar commences before 8 a.m.. when the big aircraft, are tun cut of the hangars and engines started to warm up. Obakea is one of the busiest air centres of the Dominion, tor there is not 'only the traffic of the training station, but a cons'tant stream of visiting aircraft piloted by airmen doing tests requiring a landing away from home. Test Flying.

The pilot navigator is required io ily a triangular course of not less than ]5O miles, keeping a leg, and working from strip maps. He is accompanied bv an instructor, but there are solo flights of not less than 100 miles with a landing at another station. Another important test is the flight, of 2()t) miles on a triangular course, with an intermediate landing, a complete log being kept of every phase of the flight, bests are made of the pupil's ability on straight flying at accurate speed and height, and capacity to recover from unusual positions. Blind navigation is an essential qualification. Apart from ground tests in the Link trainer, the airman is sent up to make a triangular flight of 35 miles with the hood over the cockpit—and a safety man at the dual control. Three night landings with an instructor, aud three solo, are in this intermediate programme, and there is a Height test in which the airman climbs to 15,000 test and remains height for halt, an hour. His accomplishments also include looping, half rolls and slow rolls. Having achieved all these things in two months, and passed many more examinations, the young airman lias reached the happy stage of receiving his “wings”—the pilot’s badge. There as still the advanced stage. Gunnery and bombing become the main features. Before leaving Weraroa m the first stage, airmen have familiarized themselves with all types of guns used in the air. At Ohakea they have range practice on the ground. Their first air experience is with the camera gun. However, they deal with realities when an aircraft goes up towing a drogue or target 300 feet below it, and about 1000 feet astern. The gunner has to chase it and fire at the drogue with the front gun. Bombing Practice. Practical bombing is done in a remote part of the district from a height of 6000 feet. The airman is only regarded as proficient if he lands a fair proportion of his bombs within 25 feet of the target. The practice bomb releases a chemical when it lands, ami there is a cloud of smoke. These tests are carefully noted, and one of the charts -examined proved that a competent bomber trained at Ohakea could land eight bombs within a radius of 18 yards of the around target, from a height of 10,000 feet. Using up bombs and flying big service aircraft is expensive, but much is saved by ground tests of marksmanship conducted in a lofty darkroom with remarkably clever optical equipment. Aiming is highly scientific, for many factors, including air speed, drift, and even the variable force of gravity at heights must be brought into the calculations. The bomber does not aim by unaided sight, but endeavours to ascertain accurately all the conditions of the moment, and adjust his sighting instrument to take all these into account.

In the test room, tlte pupil lies prone behind Hie sighting instrument, and on a floor above an officer operates the projector which throws beneath the pupil a moving landscape, the picture being 20 feet in diameter. It. is always changing, and the bomber must, decide from indication-; on,the landscape what is the drift, and the other factors to take into account, lie is told to hit a particular object in Hie moving field, and release of the “bomb makes a flash record of results. Hundreds of these tests cost little, and save much petrol and practice material. Flying On Tlte Ground.

Pilots do five hours of tests in the Link Trainer, capable of reproducing in the lecture room almost every phase of actual flying. It resembles a miniature aircraft, tlie cockpit, of normal size, but hooded. ’Die pupil enters, pulls down the hood, and spends, the next 20 minutes or so in artiliciiil light. He is in communication with the instructor through ear-phones. Die mudline starts up witli a drone simulating Hie engines. 'Die pupil sees in front of him tlie standard instrument board. There is no visual guide, but Hie competent navigator uses the compass —quite simple. Imt for the fact that (lie Link Trainer will drift, away oil the course, will uncannily lose height unless the throttle is watched, ami Hie hooded pilot, may experience rough bumpy ci.mdit.ions, or even Hie phenomena of ice. 'Die Link Trainer is a splendid test of rend ions, iiocnii.se it. is more seiisilivo limn the aver.-igo aircraft. Night Flights Made. From (jliakea night flights are made by big aircraft having five pupikaboard. Sample routes tire: (Jliakea New Plymouth-Otaki- Brothers Light in Cook Strait-Oliakea; ami ohtiketi Karori Rock in Cook Strail.-Gai'e Jackson-Stephens Island-! ihtikea. On these flights the pupils take turns at, navigating, and all keep complete records of course and flying conditions. Behind all these flying activities is Hie work of the inaintenance sltifT. T<’ keep one airmail in service, at least ion other skilled people have to b<* eui ployed. Every mudline in tlie service hangars displays a large board carry ing the word “Serviceable.” If reversed, the notice reads “Unsorvice-

able,” aud nobody dare handle that aircraft till a responsible maintenance officer certifies in writing that it is again lit. for the air. Safeguards arc laid down in detail, in mandatory language. Tliere are skilled inspect ions of planes between flights. At least 20 dll’ fcreiit trades are represented in the maintenance staff. Fitters, riggers, instrument makers and repairers, tirinament experts, fabric workers, are sonic of tlie many specialists. Ohakea lias tine engineering shops. One new workshop just, being completed is planned to deal with the general overhaul of engines; they are itiketi down, every component, cleaned, ami a microscopic examination made of Im portant parts before they are passed for reassembly. In a remote pail of tire aerodrome is Hie testing bench, where Hie reassembled engine run:-: for four hours under its own power, making sue): a racket, that tin- re.-isou for remoteness is obvious. In all these workshopsis seen tlie warning poster: "A Hidden .Mistake is ;i Crime."