AIR TRAINING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1941, Page 9

AIR TRAINING

AUSTRALIAN SCHEME AHEAD I OF SCHEDULE ACCIDENTS "INEVITABLE.” STATEMENT ON POSITION. Just: a week after it was announced I that Australia’s biggest flying train- ' Ing schools had recorded the largest ■ output of pilots in the history of the i Royal Australian Air Force, and that ! training officers had been agreeably j surprised by the high graduationl standards, six members of the sor- > vice and three aircraft were lost in a ' series of weekend crashes. "This weekend list of air fatalities' came as a shock to people becofning: accustomed to the comparatively clean I accident record of the R.A.A.F..’’ states j the weekly summary of the R.A.A.F. i Directorate of Public Relations. "At the same time —as the Minister j for Air (Mr J. McEwan* has indicated —tile Air Force has grown enormous- ■ ly since the outbreak of war and thou- i sands of mon at scores of training and ‘ operational establishments are now, flying every day. Experience in ev-1 ery country has shown that some! training accidents are unavoidable. I

"Mr McEwan, pointing to the rules laid down for the conduct of training and operational flights and the precaution taken to see that each R.A.A.F. aircraft is as efficient as skilled hands can make it. has given an assurance that his department will permit no laxity of administration or discipline that might contribute to any sort of flying accident."

The bulletin says that 95 per cent pass had been obtained in Canada by Australian pilot trainees who had completed their advanced training there. The second batch recorded only one failure, and the grounds were medical ones.

"If we require any proof of the efficiency of our training methods, then we have it in this Canadian result," the review continues. "Those trainees sent to Canada received their elementary flying training before they left Australia. As far as the quality of our advanced training is concerned, results achieved recently by record groups of Victorian and New South Wales graduates speak for themselves.”

At the end of 1940. Australia was well ahead of air-scheme constructional and training programmes, the bulletin adds. Development was being continued with all speed in 1941 and it was plain that Australia’s output of trained pilots, air observers and wireless air gunners would reach the annual peak objective an appreciable time before the date originally estimated.

"With regular batches of pilot trainees being sent to Rhodesia for completion of their training, as well as to Canada, and with the continued expansion of Australia's own training facilities, air-erow reservists are finding themselves being called up in increasing numbers and after shorter periods on the waiting list.

’For Australia to fulfil her obligations under the Empire Air Training Scheme in which she is a partner, intakes will keep on showing regular increases until the whole sequence of carefully planned training establishments are carrying their maximum loads.

"Until then there will bo air-crows openings for the right types of young Australians: after that, there will be the maximum intake of trainees every month and. for as long as the war continues, a steady demand for young met; qualified to tram as members of air ctews." Resides pushing up the rate 1 f aircrew output under the Empire Ail' Scheme. Australia had sent some 01 its peace-trained squadrons overseas, and was to scud anuthor !’ AA F army co-op'-ratiun squadron to tl. - Middle East, the bulletin continues "Despatch of this additional squadron is possible because, in the inopthssince the war began, Au*|tralia had been able to enlist sufficient technicians and other ground stall’, in addition to air crew members, that it is felt the squadron can be spared from i's normal duties in order to co-operate with Australian soldiers." says the bulletin.