BCATP
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Lancaster
|
Media
BCATP
|
Lancaster
|
Media
|
"What did you do in the war, Daddy? How did you help us to win?" "Circuits and bumps and turns, laddy, And how to get out of a spin. Woe and alack and misery me, I trundle around in the sky, And instead of machine-gunning Nazis I'm teaching young hopefuls to fly. Thus is my service rewarded, My years of experience paid, Never a Hun have I followed right down, Nor ever gone out on a raid. They don't even let us go crazy, We have to be safe and sedate. So it's nix on inverted approaches They stir up the C.F.I.'s hate. |
For it's oh, such a naughty example, And what will the A.O.C. think? But we never get posted to fighters We just get a spell on the Link. So it's circuits and bumps from morning 'til noon, And instrument flying 'til tea. Hold 'er off, give her bank, put your undercart down, You're skidding, you're slipping, you see. And as soon as you finish with one course, Like a flash, up another one bobs, And there's four more to show 'round the cockpit, And four more to try out the knobs. But sometimes we read in the papers Of the deeds that our students have done, And we're proud to have been their beginnings And shown them the way to the sun. |
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The 1920's had seen a build-up of the Royal Canadian Air Force but following budget cuts during the Great Depression, the level of flight instruction reached very low levels. In 1936, only twelve pilots graduated for RCAF service. All flight training was done at the Flight Training School at RCAF Station Camp Borden and later at Trenton. When war broke out in 1939, it was clear that air power would play a major role. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, with Canada playing the leading role, was created to answer the need for aircrew. The success of this scheme was dependent on its instructors. During the war, 50,000 teen-aged and slightly-older recruits were moulded into skilled fighter and bomber pilots by their Flight Instructors. The graduates went on to win the air war but the majority of instructors, most of whom longed to be posted overseas, continued to teach class after class until the end of the war. The Central Flying School at Trenton became the first designated BCATP "Flying Instructor School" on August 3, 1942. Eventually others were created at Vulcan, Alberta and Arnprior, Ontario. |
