This page has already been transcribed. You can find new pages to transcribe here.

Transcription

[Page 124]

8.

standard of efficiency we had set ourselves. The pupils were, with very few exceptions, keen as mustard on flying them well and keeping up the reputation of the flight. They knew that they would be given every chance and as much instruction as they needed, and that they would not go "solo" before they had flown me round and landed me really well. There was a lot of consternation among those who were not sufficiently advanced to be finished by me before I left – though I says it as should'nt. I am not boasting about all this but simply telling you how all my little hopes and ambitions that I told you of before have been realised. I made up my mind to make a success of the job I took on, when the C.O. first asked me to take instruct on the much dreaded RE8. I have had a very tough fight from the beginning – you know what it is to try and overcome panic about anything. When men such as Pemberton Billing, who do not know what they are talking about, make wild statements in the House that the machine is dangerous, how can one wonder at pupils being afraid of it? I was convinced that the machine was not dangerous though there was had certainly been a lot of men killed flying it. I decided that these accidents were due to two things, firstly th pupils being insufficiently instructed and secondly the curious but undeniable fact that if you told a pupil that the safest machine in the

 

Current Status: 
Completed