Came then aerial navigation, the knowledge of which is essential to all who travel by air. An extremely interesting study this, covering sketching, compass work—both magnetic and prismatic, definitions and conventional signs used—in fact all such information as is necessary not only to read intelligently and quickly any civil or military map and absorb the information often so vitally necessary, but also to construct one which shall be legible for general military and artillery purposes.
It follows, then, that the cadet when he arrived at the School of Aeronautics had already moulted much of the civilian. The plumage of the pilot was beginning to sprout.
At this point his education was carried still further. He applied his map-reading knowledge to an immense reproduction of part of the actual theatre of war, showing whole battlefields in faithful outline. He studied the plotting of an aerial course from point to point, with a given wind velocity and speed of aeroplane. He delved into air and weather conditions in northern France and learned what targets looked like when seen from the air. He began photography, the study of artillery work, zone call systems and those simple yet enormously important and pre-arranged signals between battery and aeroplane. Here, too, he was introduced to the science of bombing.
Moving on to engines of various types, he absorbed their principles of design and operation—with practical work on the engines themselves which were set up on running stands at Camp Leaside and subjected to every temporary indisposition imaginable in order that the pupil might diagnose and remedy the trouble ([page 83]). With the engines he studied the design of the aeroplane, assembling and dismantling till its structure became simple and familiar ([page 172]). Coincident with all this was his education as a soldier, with lectures in military law, procedure, the organization of various arms of the service, the internal economy of R.A.F. squadrons, wings, parks and depots and the various phases of active service duty.
Congested as it may appear, there was in actuality no congestion. This was due not only to the fact that instruction was invariably progressive, but also such mechanical inventiveness had been displayed by the staff that whenever practical instruction involving mechanics of any nature was given, there was always produced the relative mechanical device which showed the practical application of the theory and demonstrated quite unmistakably its physical character.
From the School of Aeronautics to which further reference is made ([page 162]) the cadet proceeded to the Armament School. In the chapter [under this heading] his course is sufficiently outlined, and by the time he arrived at a flying wing he had mastered the theoretical and mechanical essentials of the principles and appliances which were to control his further development.
It was recognized that if instruction in wireless ceased on arrival at the wings, the pupil at once became rusty in these requirements, and, from the commencement of the Corps, work classes were invariably held in this and kindred subjects at all flying units.
Now came the time to which the cadet had been looking forward since his enlistment. Entrusted to a competent instructor, he embarked on flying tuition. Here also was practice in aerial photography, vertical and oblique, and bomb dropping by wireless, in which the pilot signalled the release of an imaginary bomb, the message being received by an observer in a camera obscura hut, who noted also the position of the machine at the instant of release. Formation and fifty-mile cross-country flights were practised, the former as in active service, the latter giving opportunity for map reading in the air, and the actual collection of a variety of information which paralleled the duty to be performed at the front.
Here, too, the cadet climbed to 6,000 feet and remained at this height for fifteen minutes. He flew through clouds guided by compass, read ground strips and Aldis lamp signals, and in general comported himself exactly as though in the air over enemy country, and when he ultimately reported at Camp Leaside it was as a skilled pilot thoroughly at home in his machine and ready for the two final periods of his instruction.