There are compensations, however, if no guarantee of personal security. To the instructor, for instance, there is always interest in the never-ending tide of cadets, their personalities, their characteristics as developed in the air and their progress. A cadet’s first solo flight brings, if successful, a peculiar pride to the man who taught him to fly, but if not successful a self-searching to determine what link in the armour of tuition has been weak—for the instructor is held responsible for the crash.
The wing examining officer was called into existence by the introduction of the Gosport system, which in itself has been developed and modified to suit Canadian conditions. The first result of this introduction was that it became necessary to comb out instructors, some of whom had been too long on the job and were “stale,” others too old, others too young to be entirely steady, and others who, though excellent pilots, could not adopt the principles and psychology evolved. Still others needed instruction themselves. To this end the School of Special Flying was established at Armour Heights under a brilliant pilot. A steady supply of well-trained men was assured by the operations of this unit.
Early in the year 1918, the instructors at every wing were put under the wing examining officer, whose duty it was to weed out those who got stale, to test the abilities of all new instructors from time to time, and form his own opinion of their instructional capacity. In addition, it was the obligation of this officer, to investigate the log book of every machine which crashed, and demand an explanation of any apparent discrepancies, and also to keep knowledge of all crashes so as to determine whether any one instructor was responsible for an unreasonable number. In the case of the latter being evident, it was palpable that the instructor was either stale or too young for his work, and he was forthwith sent overseas, where usually under the new and much-longed-for stimulant he did admirably.
OFF TO WORK—CAMP BORDEN.
“STUNTING” AT ARMOUR HEIGHTS.