GLIDER PILOTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

GLIDER PILOTS

ARDUOUS TRAINING COURSE. SOUTH AFRICAN'S VARIED WAR EXPERIENCE. A South African glider pilot, Lieutenant Robert Irvine, an author in civil life, recently gave overseas listeners, in a 8.8. C. “Odd Spot” programme, a glimpse into the training that goes to make a glider pilot. Pretty intensive training too. But from what the talks producer, Alasdair Loch, said in introducing him, adventure to Robert Irvine, is a thing to experience as well as to write about. Irvine, who comes from Rusienbuig, near Johannesburg, has travelled in many parts of the world, particularly in China and America. He found himself in Britain when war was declared, and joined up right away as a private in the British Army. Next he got a commission in a Scots regiment. Thereafter he applied for any and every “interesting” job that loomed in the offing. Mostly he heard no more. Then one day his battery clerk said: “I’ve put your name in, Sir, as usual.” “Oh, all right, good show” was the automatic answer. Then he discovered that this time it was volunteers for the Glider Pilot regiment that were being asked for. However he refused to let himself get excited. But this time things really happened. Five of his company found themselves posted. And Physical Training became their routine lot. For, as Irvine said, “each man has to become a complete soldier, capable of flying a glider. And no such combination had ever existed in the British Army before.” And the Commanding Officer ruled that the strictest discipline was essential for both the jobs, and this had to be acquired by rather ruthless methods. Quite sound, too, in Irvines opnion, “because, obviously, one has to be physically and mentally alert before taking on the flying training.” Later, at an elementary flying school, they learnt aerobatics —loops, stall turns, slow rolls, rolls “off the top,” figure of eight. . • to spin, and, even more important, to get out of a spin. They learnt to map read from the air, and how to navigate on cross-country flights; to make a forced landing safely, and, of course, night flying. Then there were things like navigation, theory of flight, signals, theory of engines, aircraft recognition, and meteorology! And then came the great moment—the Glider Training School proper. The speaker summed it up thus: “The trickest part of gliding is the take-dfl’. You have to watch the tug aeroplane and the tug rope all the time, in case you get caught in a slip stream. This is dangerous near the ground. Otherwise it’s quite straightforward—though a lot of concentration is needed io keep in the right position. And of course it's easier for the pilot if your glider holds the correct position . . . Once you have released .your tug rope it's all up to you, the glider pilot.' If you undershoot or overshoot you just can’t go round again, as a ‘powered’ pilot can. That's what makes gliding so fascinating. You get only one chance. And there is no sensation in the world to compare with gliding. Lieutenant Irvine wears the kilt and uniform of the Gordon Highlanders and the wings of a glider pilot, and sometimes the “Airborne” beret.