Pilot Fatigue

willycoppens · 18 February 2003, 04:02 AM

Hi,
Was " Pilot Fatigue " ever officially recognized as a medical condition? With pilots showing symptoms like stomach ulcers, surely somebody must have guessed that something was wrong.
Given the conditions of the times- chronic shortage of pilots, etc. the idea of a tour of duty probably did not exist.
TIA, willy

Chris_Tydlacka · 18 February 2003, 10:02 AM

I have never read about a pilot being removed from service permanently. I know pilots had break downs but in most cases were sent back to the front. I hope some of our more knowledgeable friends here would know more

DavidErrol · 18 February 2003, 04:29 PM

Read the novel Winged Victory by V.M. Yeates (a 6 victoy Camel pilot) to get a sense of what the fatigue was like and how well it was recognized.

DE

19 February 2003, 08:48 AM

Dear Willy,

*From the little I know, concerning the RFC, there was no leave rotation; you flew until you couldn't fly anymore, by which time it was either fatigue or exhaustion or both, which either grounded you or accounted for your demise...

*It seems you had to earn whatever leave you got; wasn't that the case with Capt. Ball? When, in 1916, he felt that he had had either 'enough' or deserved some sort of respite, and requested leave, he was instead transferred by his C.O. to a BE squadron (#8). From one account, it was as if the C.O. was punishing Ball; on the other hand, maybe the C.O. thought that observation duty was less stressful than scouting?

*Another instance was Roy Brown, who, if memory serves, refused to go on leave, literally flying until he dropped, after having passed out at the controls and almost getting killed in the ensuing crash. Even at the time of his fabled encounter with MvR, he was subsisting on a diet (if you could call it that) of milk and brandy (I kid you not!). "Brownie" was an iron man!

*One last point? Concerning the mutinies in the French Army in 1917, one of the bones of contention was a more equitable granting of leave...

VBR,
Captain Lewis

*

retread · 19 February 2003, 02:57 PM

I was just scanning the book "An Airman Marches" by Harold Balfour (RFC/RAF 1915-1918) and will include a quote which is relevant to this thread.
(Page 145) "This was the end of my war flying in France,although naturally at the time I thought I was coming back for the usual "fattening up" process, prior to another tour of active service."
For what it is worth my impression is that the RFC/RAF was quite aware of the mental and physical deterioration caused by prolonged combat flying and that if a pilot was precieved as having served concientciously they were given the opportunity to transfer to some quieter pasture of the war. At least temporarily.

jado · 19 February 2003, 11:30 PM

Should you get the opportunity check-out Vol 17 No.2 Summer 2002 of Over the Front. One of the best articles written, "Flying In The Great War: Rx For Misery" by LtCol Steven Ruffin USAF. This will take some of the glamor out of WW1 flying.

Best regards,
Joe