My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force - Part 2 [Training in Canada] By Ronald Gaudet I arrived No. 9 E.F.T.S. St. Catherines on 9 June and flew Fleet Finch biplanes until 24 July. Up to this time had only driven a bicycle so it was quite a thrill for me. In fact one of the questions my instructor, Sergeant Scott asked me was, "Did you ever drive a car?" I said no but drove a bicycle, and thought at the time what a funny thing to ask. We were told we should solo between 8 and 12 hours or we would be washed out (failed) and sent to observer or gunnery school. The first time up Scott did everything that could be done in the Finch and after about 35 minutes asked me how I felt and I told him “not too good” so we went back and landed. After this I was all right. On 18 June I did some flying with Sergeant Detenbeck for fifty minutes and when we got down he said, "If I was your instructor I would let you solo now." I was now beginning to worry as my total was 9hr.30 min however shortly after I went up with Sergeant Stirton on my solo check. On landing he got out and came to me and said, “she is all yours take her away”. I was real happy at these words but at the same time suddenly thought am I really ready but pushed it aside and opened the throttle and found he was right, I was ready. I soloed at 10hr 45 min. Sergeant Scott then told me why the car question was important to him. I was his second pupil and people who had never driven a car had more washouts and if I did then it would look bad for him. This was why he let me get extra time to be sure to pass. The first time up on map reading with Sergeant Scott he did not sound too happy with me which was understandable as this was my fist time to see let alone use one. However, after this flight I had no problem. On July 20 I went on a cross-country triangle to London and landed to refuel. While this was going on I met a couple of guys I knew at I.T.S. and we talked for a few minutes. I got an ear full when I got back as they were calling all over to see if I was in trouble at some field and were getting ready to send out a search party. Was gone for 1 hr 40 min and should only have been about an hour. There was a club in town for us and some of us went down one night. They played dance music and although there were lots of girls I guess we were too bashful to ask them to dance. The hostess produced two boxes and put two sets of numbers in them and we drew one and matched it with a girl who drew from the other box. The girl that matched my number was a real beauty and after the tune ended she followed me back to set down. We danced together the whole evening. The next day the boys wanted to know if I had a date with Miss Canada. She was last years winner and of course I was not aware of this. When I said no they said, "why did you not give us a chance." It was not my fault that she stayed with me. We were up flying one day and after about ten minutes a big black cloud came in and every one came down and in this short time the wind had changed by 180 degrees. Blake came in a few minutes later and didn't look at the wind-sock and landed down wind in which he took the whole field to slow down and just stopped short of the fence. The ground crew had to come out and pull him back so he could turn around and get back to the apron (parking area). From then on he was known as Downwind Blake. One noon hour one of the boys was late getting down and his instructor called him in his office and asked him where he was flying and he told the area and then was asked, “how low were you flying?” He replied not below 300 ft.(this was our standard and not supposed to go below this). Then the instructor asked, “are you sure that is where you said you were flying” and he replied “yes”. The instructor then replied "I must go there to see corn growing that high as there was an ear of corn stuck in your undercarriage”. I finished with 64 hrs 50 min flying time. Posted to No. 6 S.F.T.S. Dunnville, Ont. on July 27th. It was here they called me The Machine Gun Wizard due to my ability to strip the Browning colt machine gun in 2 minutes. We were learning to strip the weapon down and the instructor made the remark that after six months of doing this it could be done in 2 min. This seemed to be a red flag to me so on the next session started to see how it could be done, short cuts etc. A few days later I asked one of the guys to time me and it took me exactly 2 minutes. To cap it all, we went on the range a few days later and I put all 200 rounds in the spinner of the target aircraft (printed on the target). Here we learned to fly Yales and Harvards. We had been told by different students from here who visited us at St. Catherines that the Yale was a killer and to be very careful when flying it. However, I found that this was not so; as long as you knew the capability of it and did not try to go beyond this there was no problem. After 3 hr 35 min dual with my instructor Sergeant, I flew solo and after trying spins and aerobatics had confidence in the Yale. I flew 17 hr 45 min then had 4 hr dual in a Harvard and then did my solo in one trying all the aerobatics it was capable of for an hour and ten minutes. This was the most power I had flown with, 550 H.P. One of the things that sticks in my mind was on my first night landing. I was all set to touch down and Sergeant Foster calmly said, “are you going to land up here” as we were about 50 ft. up. This was 27 August; however, the next try was good and had no trouble after this. Another occasion was on an instrument check and after going through the normal procedure the instructor said, "Now I will show you what happens when trimmed tail heavy and into a spin." I was still under the blind flying hood and he told me to trim the aircraft tail heavy. I then could feel us climbing and throttle back. Just as I felt her going he said "You have control." My feet were on the floor and my hands on my lap but on trying to move either of them could not do so. Also, my chin was stuck on my chest and could see the instruments but not read them. Finally by inching out, I got my feet on the pedals and hand on the stick, pushed both in the corner and brought her out to straight and level. The hood then flew open and the instructor turned and said, "Did you pass out." and I replied, "No." He then said, "Its a good thing you did not because the last thing I remember is giving you control; take us home". On the ground he told me he had done this with every student but this was the last time as something went haywire. It was due to the fact that I was stronger than most that we survived. One day, I was up on Navigation instruction and at one point the instructor gave me three or four turns to do and was careful to make them perfect rate one or two which ever he asked me to do. After completing them he calmly asked, "How many feet did you lose on those turns." I replied, "I don’t know sir." He said, "You lost 1000 ft. if you started at 800 ft. where would you be." I didn't answer. Then he screamed, "You would be dead that’s what you would be." I was parking a Harvard one day after a trip and one of the ground crew was waving me in to park and signalled for me to turn around and my wing tip hit a fire station hut and bent the end up in the air. Although the crewman was waving me in they said I was still responsible for the accident and was told I had to wash five aircraft as punishment. I reported after supper to the hangar and washed one Harvard and asked which one was next and the Sergeant told me to forget it and go back to billets. There came a time when they did not have enough instructors to go with us on instrument flying as the student is under the hood (a canvas cover controlled from the front seat) so, a look-out is required to look for other aircraft and also to navigate. It was decided that some of those students that were better at navigation would be picked to fly as safety pilots. On 20 September I flew with one of these named Sullivan. We were in a Harvard with me in the back seat of course, under the hood. We were up about half an hour and suddenly the hood flew open and he said, "Do you know where we are." I replied, "How could I know as I have been under the hood." He had no idea where we were and the fog was so thick we were down to 300 ft so when a village or crossroad came up it was too fast to tell where it was on the map. I then asked him if we were west of Hamilton and he thought we were so I said we should fly south-east. He wanted to know what good this would do so I asked him if he had a better idea. Then I turned to this heading and went under the hood and flew the course myself, after a time the hood flew open again and he let a yell out, "There is the field." Sure enough it was almost straight ahead on our left. I figured if we were west of Hamilton then flying that course we would be sure to hit the lake shore and could follow it to the field. I wondered at the time what would have happened if it had been up to him, we probably would have flown around until we ran out of gas and cash landed somewhere. One week end, two of us and two girls went to Crystal Beach and one of the attractions was a tower with a point you hit and drove a weight up to hit a gong. If you did it three times out of three you get a cigar. There were a few army men and some were pretty big but could not ring the bell even though they had their jackets off. When an opening occurred I stepped up but my friends did not want me to but I paid my fee and the first hit just missed the bell and the army guys were laughing at me. The next two hit the bell so paid for another try and got a cigar and no more laughter. The reason I had to try goes back to hearing my dad tell of this when he was young, along with his brother, they would see who could beat the other at this game. He said "Its not how hard you hit but you must hit it dead center and not to one side." He was correct in this. Later, we came to a machine and put in coin and there were two handles to hold and push up giving an electric shock so the more you pushed the the greater the shock. Of course you could see nothing happening so the girl I was with said, “that was a waste of money". I told her it just makes you feel good. I told her to shove the handles hard up as I dropped the coin in. She did and could not let go until the machine shut off and for a few minutes was quite angry for some reason. Of course she did not know that electricity does not bother me as much as others. The food here was pretty poor so we ate quite often in town and one night some Australians came in and sat at the next table and asked the waitress if they could have steak, eggs, and chips. We thought this was the craziest thing we ever heard of until we tried it and it has been one of my favourite meals ever since. During this training, the only thing I was having trouble with on the course was my speed at receiving mores code. We were required to receive at six words a minute and always missed a word or two every sentence although could send at fifteen easily. I asked if they would wash me out if I could not reach the six and they said I would be. A week before the final exams and no change so was very worried but the instructors were telling me not to worry as some day it would come all of a sudden. It was five days before the exam and I went in to class set down and like they said it just came with no problem at all. I asked if they would have washed me out had I not passed and they just grinned and said, "We will never know will we." While on night flying one morning just before dawn one of our boys didn't allow enough for a crosswind and cleaned off the undercarriage. A few hours later he came in to land in a Harvard and had his brakes on which caused him to go over on his back. He was one of the boys who was afraid of the Yale when we arrived and yet had no trouble with them but pranged two Harvards of which he had no fear at all. They washed him out and sent him to observer school. One weekend five of us went to Toronto in a late model Ford and about halfway there we had a flat on the left rear tire. On opening the trunk there was a jack but no handle so they said what are we going to do this road is not used too much. I said all we have to do is screw the jack to the right height and lift the car up and put the jack under the axle. They said don't be silly we can't lift a car. I just backed up to the car and took a grip on the wheel rim and lifted it up, so settled the argument then and there. Needless to say we changed the wheel and went on our way. On the week before the final test one of the boys got in the chief instructor office and got a test paper out of each test envelope without breaking the seal. Had copies made and we each got one. I was going to Toronto for the weekend so did not bother to look at them but some of them looked up all the answers and even had crib notes on their arms. When the results came out my marks averaged 85.5 and would have been a high mark but was half way down the list; the top fourteen got commissions. Had my log book all made up and ready to leave as soon as the postings were in. On 30 Sept. the Chief Flying Instructor called me and another pilot in and said we had to get more time in as we were supposed to have 145 hrs. I needed an hour and five min. We were both upset as we thought we were all done. We just looked at each other and didn’t say anything as we each climbed in a Yale and took off. We climbed and did some formation flying, all the time heading for Niagara Falls. And on seeing the Maid of the Mist we dove and just skimmed over it one behind the other and zoomed up over the falls at just about zero feet and was lucky not to hit a down draft. There were two men in a row boat fishing in the middle of the river. And so we flew over them and they waved so we circled around and went down so close that on looking back they were getting up from the bottom of the boat and shaking their fists at us. Up ahead there was a tug boat towing a large barge so naturally we went down and buzzed them also, at this time I was behind the other plane and after the pass was looking back at the boats and suddenly the other plane was passing in the opposite direction. On taking a quick look ahead there was the Niagara bridge. And I could not go under as they were painting it and were suspended below doing the underside, could not go over as was too close, so I pulled a steep turn and just cleared the side of the bridge. We then started for home but on looking around found the fog had come in and could only see a short distance as we had to stay about 300 ft. off the ground. The other pilot was in the lead and seemed to know where he was going but after a few min. he motioned me to come abreast of him and shrugged his shoulders saying he did not know where we were and pointed for me to take over. As luck would have it I saw enough to know where to go for a few more min. and then had to get him and take over; however it worked out as we kept doing this till we reached base. But it was an hour and twenty-five minutes from time we took off. After 70 hrs. 30min.day and 10hrs.night received Wings and posted out 7 Oct. for Halifax, N. S. after a week at home. While on leave had a sore right next to my rectum for the last couple of days but did not tell my mother as she would have worried. Went by bus to Halifax and by this time was in quite a state as sitting was pretty uncomfortable, passengers must have thought I had the itch or something the way I kept turning in my seat trying to get a good position. Got settled in that evening and straight to bed. Next morning the first thing had a bowel movement and thought it was going to split me in two and was now pretty worried as had no idea what the problem was. Went on sick parade and the Doc said, "Sending you to Camp-hill as you may have ( some spinal disease can not remember the name) however it was only a boil. The fellow in next bed was on his second one so we called each other Two-hole and Three-hole even in letters later on. Was in about two weeks so by the time I got out; all of my group had gone over. Few days later a large draft was told to meet in the auditorium as our O.C. Troops was giving us a talk on the trip over. The food had been bad on the last trip but this was all straightened out and we would be in staterooms of no more than four with hot and cold running water. We had been prepared for a rough trip but now were looking forward to a good one. We were lined up for supper one day and I saw FiFi leaving the mess so I said to those around me to watch and see if he did anything funny. Sure enough he came to a garbage can lifted the cover and pretended to have a leak in it, he was still an L.A.C.

My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force Part 2 [Training in Canada]