Inter-War

Group Captain Frank D. Tredrey

In the first part of his log book Corporal Tredrey sets out the sequence of his flying instruction from its start on 11 August 1930 to the award of his Pilot’s Wings on 6 May 1931.

Pilot’s Flying Log Book of Group Captain Frank D. Tredrey, 1926-1972

Group Captain Robert R. Greenlaw

In a letter written on 3 January 1934 Flight Lieutenant Greenlaw voices his concern about the impact on pilot training of time lost by students due to sports injuries. His Commanding Officer is unimpressed, however, replying:

“I do not want you to write rubbish like this. Show me the statistics.”

Letter from Flight Lieutenant Robert Ritchie Greenlaw to Officer Commanding No. 4 Flying Training School, Abu Sueir, Egypt

Mr F.W. John Kemp

During his pilot training at Desford Mr Kemp regularly corresponded with his friend, Miss Freda Powell. Here he describes (on a broken typewriter) the crash of a De Havilland Tiger Moth:

“It appears that one of the budding short service commission trainees was up doing steep turns when he heard a bang in the aircraft, which proceeded to start falling out of the sky… so our friend proceeds to hop out and floats down with his brolly (i.e. parachute) while the Moth snorts down from 2000 feet and tries to bury itself in the deck…

…Now, when an aeroplane stalls, the slots on the wings open, and the quicker the stall, the quicker they open, so that in a high speed stall, they open with quite a bang…

Furthermore, when stalled, the aeroplane is temporarily out of control and it falls until it has regained enough speed to become airborne again…

RESULT…heavy-handedness + ignorance of fundamental principles of flight have cost the service about £800 worth of aeroplane and the bloke his RAF career.”

Letter from Mr F.W. John Kemp to Miss Freda Powell, Civil Flying Training College, Desford, 19 June 1937