SQN LDR ‘ARCHIE’ KINCH RECALLS HOW ONE PILOT LEARNED THE HARD WAY DURING TRAINING TO FLY JETS IN THE 1950S
It was a sunny day in November 1952 and I was sitting on a bench outside the railway station at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, awaiting the arrival of a vehicle to take me to nearby Little Rissington.
Recently returned from the Far East, my posting instruction was to attend 147 Course at the Central Flying School (CFS) with the aim of becoming a service qualified flying instructor.
The roar of the North American Harvards and the screech of the Gloster Meteors overhead aroused in me a level of excitement I had not experienced since my last sortie in a Short Sunderland flying-boat of 205 Squadron.
While madly keen to fly – and subsequently instruct on – the jets, I wasn’t overly disappointed at being allocated to the Harvard squadron. I was to be married the following year and, as all my contemporaries will recall, the accident rate on the Meteor at that time was alarming.
After settling into the comfortable accommodation afforded by the Sergeants’ Mess, I decided I should try to absorb the information neatly posted on the notice board. Determining the programme for 147 Course, I was delighte…
