RFC Training: Background Notes

Chris Spellman had asked earlier about RFC training. Recently I uncovered some notes I'd made on this subject while researching an aborted book project a decade ago. I thought I might post these to the Forum, in bits and pieces.

There are over a dozen messages, each one four or five paragraphs long and on a single subject. The first subject follows; if I'm transgressing some unwritten rule, or if people don't want to see this info, please let me know and I'll email it to Chris directely.

Joining Up and Training in the Royal Flying Corps, 1915-18
These notes are based on primary and secondary sources; in most cases when an individual experience is mentioned, the information comes from a personal file (diary, letters, interview transcripts etc.) held on that individual by the Canadian Department of National Defence, Ottawa. The primary focus of these notes is on a typical recruit transfering in late 1916 and training in early 1917; where there are differences with later or earlier practice (specifically with reference to the Smith-Barry “Gosport” system), these will be noted.

1. RFC Training: Joining/Transferring
Transfer to the RFC was by turns easy or difficult depending on the conditions of the ground and air wars. At the beginning of the war, the RFC was only interested in officers with aviation experience. No one could be accepted into the Corps without possession of a pilot’s license: the certificate issued by the Federation d’Aviation Internationale (FAI). The FAI certificate was known universally as the “ticket.” (Ironically, possession of a Ticket didn’t mean that the RFC believed a man could actually fly. Cadets still had to undergo complete flying training; A. Roy Brown wrote home in 1916 that the FAI ticket “really amounts to nothing here.”)

As the war progressed, the RFC was forced to be less picky in its approach to recruitment. The requirement that candidates have an FAI ticket was dropped in July 1916 as casualties (both in the air and on the ground) in the Somme offensive reduced the number of transfer candidates at the same time as demand for new pilots increased. Beginning in late summer 1916 and continuing through mid 1917, the RFC made periodic appeals to infantry, cavalry and artillery units for men to transfer to the RFC. Ontarian R.V. Dodds, for example, had been a fan of flying since childhood, but could not afford the cost of getting his FAI certificate, so in 1915 he enlisted in an infantry regiment as a lieutenant. In September 1916 the RFC made one of its appeals for transfer candidates, and Dodds applied. In October 1916 he was seconded to the RFC.

Some candidates were “encouraged” by their superiors to transfer because they didn’t fit in or were otherwise considered disreputable. Alan Duncan Bell-Irving, for example, was told by his company commander to apply for a transfer (which the commander immediately endorsed) because Bell-Irving had been seen by a group of generals standing behind a set of breastworks wearing only shirt and boots -- he’d taken off his kilt in order to burn the lice from it. “You’re not one of us” was how Bell-Irving remembered his CO’s words. His fellow junior officers, incidentally, referred to the RFC as “the suicide club.”

A special case from Canada, just for the sake of interest: Robert A. Logan of Edmonton, Alberta, had joined the Canadian Army in January 1915. When he heard that the RNAS was looking for pilots, he applied to get out of the army so that he could join the navy -- what was called “discharge by purchase.” This involved the individual in question paying a sum of money in order to get out of the service, and was at the time against regulations. Logan’s army CO decided that since Logan wanted to fly at the front, he’d bend regs and told Logan that he could have his discharge so long as he paid the CO $18 and promised to take the man up for a joy-ride if they ever met again.

I have a simulation of a 1918 RAF advertisement which reads: "Join the Royal Air Force and join in our honor and glory". It shows a RAF fighter pilot killing a German single seater pilot in a frontal dive. Below the picture, there is the statement "You can not be transfered to the army or navy without your own consent". I wonder how many young Englishman looking at this might have thought: Sure I won't be transferred, I won't live long enough!

This is great stuff. Very interesting (and funny, too! "Burning the lice from his kilt?!?" Please post anything more you have on this topic, I'd love to read about it!


Melinda
"THPPTH!" - Bill, the Communist Cat

[Vigilant]

I'm not surprised the FAI 'ticket' counted for little. The test to obtain it only required the student to perform a few figures of eight, and two 'spot' landings within 50 metres of the 2 instructors/supervisors. However if the pilot looked like missing the spot, the instructors would apparently start strolling nearer the student's likely touch down point, to give him a hand!

Great stuff Michael! I really appreciate your insight! Finding info on training has been a migraining experience! This is like a double dose of Tylenol.

Chris