Murray Hofmeyer.
PB in dispersals after first solo.
I experienced no sense of euphoria or achievement until I was in the air. The empty seat next to me emphasised the fact that I had reached an important milestone. Suddenly I was enjoying what I was doing. On final approach for landing I could see the fire jeep near the runway threshold and knew Mick McLaren was watching me closely. I did not let him down. I made the smoothest of landings.
A little earlier our Squadron Commander, Flight Lieutenant Ken Edwards, had sent John Barnes solo with thirty minutes less flying time than me. Only Flight Lieutenants Ken Edwards and Mick McLaren were qualified to send students solo. This was a distinct advantage to their own students because, when other instructors decided that their students were ready, one of these two senior instructors had to conduct the solo test; an added strain on any student trying to make it past his first hurdle.
By the time the last solo flight had been flown our numbers had reduced to twelve, two having been scrubbed for not possessing pilot qualities. But now came the solo party!
Wing Commander Archie Wilson had just taken over from Squadron Leader Whyte as Commanding Officer at Thornhill. He dropped in on our party some time after it had started. Since none of us was used to alcohol, we were already pretty tipsy on the champagne we had been drinking liberally as we toasted each other with nonsensical speeches. In consequence I can only recall two events.
One was Gordon Wright offering the Wing Commander a drink and, having handed it to him, putting his arm around the new CO’s neck before loudly welcoming him to Thornhill. Gordon, oblivious to the furious look on the Wing Commander’s face, pressed on with his welcoming statement. Fortunately, he did not resist Flight Lieutenant Edward’s not-so-gentle removal of his arm from around the CO’s neck. The second memory is of later in the evening. I was standing on top of a table next to an open window playing my piano accordion when I decided to sneak a pee through the open window. This didn’t work out too well! I lost my balance and fell headlong through the window into the dark night.
For a while flying became very pleasant because aerobatics and some low flying gave breathing space between the ongoing spinning, forced landings and never-ending circuits and landings. For every two flights with one’s instructor, there was a solo. The stress had subsided and stomachs had become used to the sensations of flight and the stench of fuel. But ahead of us was the next, and by all accounts, most challenging hurdle—instrument flying.
For instrument-flying training, many aircraft employed an arrangement of canvas screens set around a pilot to prevent him from peeping outside the cockpit. Such an arrangement with side-by-side seating was dangerous because it would blank off an instructor’s vision on the port side of the aircraft, thereby limiting his ability to keep a good lookout for other aircraft.
The Provost’s designers overcame the problem with a unique solution. They fitted a robust, amber screen that resided, out of view, between the instrument panel and the engine firewall. For instrument-flight training it was drawn up and locked in place to cover the whole forward windscreen. Swivelled amber panels that came up with the main screen covered the side panels. Finally, sliding panels on the canopy catered for lateral vision. When all screens were in place the instructor continued to have complete freedom of vision though the world appeared to him as if wearing yellow sunglasses.
The student wore a pair of heavy goggles, such as those used by motorbike riders; but a clear vision lens was replaced by one of blue Perspex. Within the cockpit everything looked like the blue moonlight scene of an old movie but the amber screen became ivory black. Only the sun could be seen though this arrangement, which was so effective that direct viewing of the sun was quite safe.
For the first fifteen minutes or so ‘under the hood’ I suffered a high level of claustrophobia. The combination of tight parachute and seat straps, a tight-fitting oxygen mask and large, tight-fitting goggles in a small world of blue, made me battle for breath. However, by the time my instructor had taxied the long distance to the runway, I had acclimatised and was quite settled.
In the learning phases, Instrument Flying (IF) was every bit as difficult as I had expected, particularly in the small blue world devoid of any external references. From the outset I suffered from vertigo which most pilots experience in varying degrees. I was badly affected by this problem; and it never improved throughout my flying days. I simply had to believe that my instruments were right and accept that my senses were wrong. It took a lot of effort and absolute faith in the instruments to master the weakness.
Once I had become reasonably proficient on a full panel of flight instruments and had started to gain confidence, Mick McLaren covered the primary instrument with a plastic stick-on vehicle licence disc holder. Loss of the artificial horizon introduced a new and infinitely more difficult dimension to flight control, but again, practice made this progressively easier. Then a second disc was applied to remove the directional indicator from view, compounding the difficulties because the magnetic compass was awkward to read and was subject to a host of errors, even in straight and level flight.
In the latter part of every flight, my instructor would take over control and put the aircraft through a series of harsh manoeuvres to confuse my understanding of what the aircraft was doing. I tried to use sunlight moving through the cockpit from ever-changing directions, but this confused me more than it helped. Mick McLaren would then say, “You have control” which meant I had to get the aircraft back into straight and level flight in the shortest time possible. Each flight then concluded with a limited panel let-down on the Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) that then flowed into a radar talk-down to landing on a full panel of instruments.
Full panel flying seemed easy compared to limited panel flying, which constituted most of the time spent on IF. A spell of bad weather with eight-eighths cloud (no blue sky) gave opportunity to fly without the amber screen and blue goggles. I could not believe how easy it was to fly instruments under these conditions, but then it was back to the world of blue for many flights to come.
One morning my instructor lined up on the runway for a standard instrument take-off. As I powered up and released the brakes, he began criticising me and kept thrusting his finger at the directional indicator. When I eased the aircraft off the ground, I lost heading a bit—for which he cursed me in a manner I had not known before. For the entire flight I was given hell for everything I did and the names I was called would not pass censorship. My whole world seemed to fall apart as I battled to satisfy my instructor’s non-stop demands, so it was a great relief to get back on the ground.
As Flight Lieutenant McLaren and I were walking back to the crew room he asked, “What went wrong with you today?” I could not answer and dared not look at him because I was too close to tears. He obviously saw the quiver on my chin and said, “Tomorrow will be better. Have a cup of tea, then come and see me in my office for debriefing.”
The next morning I was horrified to see the Flight Authorisation Book had me down for IF with Flight Lieutenant Edwards, our OC I immediately came to the conclusion that this was a scrub check. When the time came, I was called to his office for a pre-flight briefing, but all he said was “Go and pre-flight the aircraft and get yourself strapped in. I will be with you shortly.”
When Ken Edwards climbed into his seat I could not get over the size of the man. His left arm was against mine whereas my instructor’s arm was always clear. He started the engine and commenced taxiing to the runway before telling me to relax. “Take this as just another IF flight”, he said. From then on he only told me what he wanted me to do next. The unusual attitudes I was asked to recover from were so much easier than Mick McLaren’s. The routine NDB and radar letdown were fine and we were back on the ground in less than the usual hour. As we taxied back to dispersals Ken Edwards said, “Well done, you have passed your instrument-rating test." I was over the moon.
I had had absolutely no idea that this h
ad been a rating test or that my instructor had deliberately set me up for it. By baiting me continuously the previous day, Flight Lieutenant McLaren had satisfied himself that I would not fall to pieces under duress, so he was quite sure I would fly a good test.
It was great to be the first of my course to gain a White Card instrument rating. Some of my fellow students struggled with instrument flying and our number had reduced to ten students by the time the last IF test was flown. For the two weeks between my test and the last student passing his, I was flying two solo sorties for every one flown with my instructor. Flying was now becoming really enjoyable!
Ronnie Thompson.
One of the students who failed to make it through the IF phase was Ronnie Thompson. He was very depressed and embarrassed by his failure. However, upon his return to civilian life, he followed his passion for wildlife and became a game warden with Rhodesian National Parks. In a career that continues today, Ronnie proved himself to be a top-line ranger and an enthusiastic promoter of wildlife. Over the years he has featured in many wide-ranging wildlife topics on radio, TV and press.
Having achieved instrument flight proficiency, it was time to move on to night flying, which was great. The fairyland of coloured lights covering Gwelo town and Thornhill reminded me of the 1947 visit to Rhodesia by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the two princesses. For that royal visit Salisbury had been transformed into a dream world of coloured lights, with thousands of flags and portraits of the Royal Family. The colours, sights and sensations of the occasion are indelibly printed in my mind and night flying always induces recall of that special occasion.
Daytime navigation commenced at the same time as night flying. Now, after many years of flying and having flown with many civilian-trained pilots, I look back and recognise the excellence of Air Force instruction given from day one. Simple matters such as looking over one’s shoulder to ensure a town or other landmark was in the right relative position for one’s heading to next destination may seem obvious, but this insured against misreading the compass or Directional Indicator. Typical and sometimes deadly errors of steering, say, 315 degrees instead of 135 degrees, are thus avoided.
Initially our navigation was conducted on 1:1,000,000-scale maps that, by the nature of their small scale, provide limited topographical information when compared to the abundance of visible features along every flight path. Though this made map-reading for students difficult, it also helped to ensure that maps were read sensibly. Too often man-made features such as roads, railways, bridges, power lines and water storage dams appearing on our maps printed some years earlier were either no longer in use, had altered course or could not be seen at all. There were also many clearly visible landmarks that were not shown at all. So the need to ignore all but God-made natural features was repeatedly drummed into us.
Ever-improving navigational aids, which have become commonplace for present-day pilots, did not exist in Rhodesia in the 1950s. Non-Directional Beacons (NDBs) sited at a few main Airfields were only reliable (when they worked) close to their locations. So reading the ground with one’s Mk1 eyeballs and using map, clock and compass correctly was essential. The ability to identify correctly those riverlines drawn on our maps and interpret ground contouring and high features accurately, particularly at low level, became one of the hallmarks of Rhodesian Air Force pilot proficiency in the years to come.
Night navigation presented different problems, especially when the summer months laid a heavy haze across the country. Dead reckoning and the ability to interpret distances and angles to the lights of towns and mines were of paramount importance. The atmosphere at night with dimly illuminated instruments always thrilled me. Some nights were as dark as a witch’s heart, whereas full moonlight made ground visible at low level. My favourite night-flying condition was when the moon illuminated towering, flashing thunderclouds that sent brilliant lightning strikes to the ground. The dangers one would face in the event of engine failure on any night were deliberately pushed to the back of one’s mind.
General flying continued between night and navigational flights and on occasions solo students were flying every airborne aircraft. Sometimes this was a pretty dangerous situation because, at that time, we had all logged about 140 flying hours.
I cannot recall where I learned that the Royal Air Force consider there are specific danger periods in the average military pilot’s career. These are when overconfidence tends to peak—around 50, 150, 500 and 1,500 hours. We were in the second danger period and the warnings given to us by Squadron Leader Whyte, concerning crew-room bragging and challenges, were all but forgotten. It was Eric Cary who always sought to challenge.
Eric was an outstanding sportsman who revelled in any one-on-one sport such as squash, for which he was then the Rhodesian champion. He also liked to pit his skills against other pilots and it was he who challenged me to meet him at a pre-arranged site in the flying area for a ‘dog fight’ to see which of us could outmanoeuvre the other.
On arrival at the appointed area I was astounded to find all six students gathered in what can only be described as a bloody dangerous situation with everyone chasing everyone else. The greatest potential for mid-air collision probably came from Hoffy who repeatedly climbed above the rest of us then dived straight through the pitching and circling mêlée.
We had not yet started formation flying but coaxed each other into giving it a go anyway. I shudder when looking back at what we did. We had not yet learned that the lead aircraft maintains steady power and that station-holding is the responsibility of those formatting on the leader. During one illegal formation flight, I could not understand why I could not hold a steady position on Bill Galloway who was ‘leading’. Once back on terra firma, Bill said he had been adjusting power to help me stay in position. The result was that I repeatedly overtook or fell back, with wing tips passing, oh so close!
Because there was no senior course to discipline or shove us around one of our instructors, Flying Officer Rex Taylor, had been appointed as Disciplinary Officer. He was a real little Hitler from time to time, but only in working hours. One day he instructed me to have John Barnes report to his office when John returned from flying. Since I would be flying by the time John landed, I wrote a notice for him on our crew-room board. I made the mistake of writing the instructor’s first name with surname instead of rank and surname. Flying Officer Taylor saw this and all hell broke loose. I owned up to the instructor and attempted to draw his wrath on me. He would have none of it, saying we all needed bringing down a peg or two.
It was a hot day and we were ordered to form up in two rows in full flying gear with masks clipped up to our faces. Flying Officer Taylor came to each student in turn and personally pulled the parachute harnesses so tight that we were really bent forward and could not straighten our legs. Then in two files he set us off at the double.
Flying Officer Rex Taylor.
Flight Lieutenant Mac Geeringh.
The Queen Mother is seen here with AVM Jacklin, Major-General Garlake and Wing Commander Taute before presenting wings to 9 SSU.
Hard-standings for the jets were still being constructed and a vast area was covered with row upon row of decomposed granite piles waiting to be levelled and compacted. Over these endless mounds we were forced to double. Though falling and sliding on the soft heaps and totally exhausted, we were driven for what seemed a lifetime. Fortunately Flight Lieutenant Edwards arrived on the scene and called a halt to the agony. Most of us reported to SSQ for treatment to raw groins and shoulders.
It was round about this time that the senior course, 9 SSU received their wings from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at New Sarum.
When regular formation training started, the BFS phase was drawing to a close. We were all looking forward to our final cross-county flight with night-stop and a party with the townspeople of Gatooma because, immediately it was over, we would then be off on three weeks’ Christmas leave.
A final cross-country with night-stop
at one of Rhodesia’s towns was a way to celebrate the completion of BFS and it also brought the Air Force into closer contact with Rhodesian citizens. As with any town in the country, the people of Gatooma went out of their way to give us a great party and treated us to superb food and anything we wished to drink. My course was still mostly teetotal though we did justice to the huge spread of food. The instructors and supporting ground Staff were less interested in the food than joining the local drinking fraternity, for which they suffered the next day on a particularly bumpy ride home in the back of a Dakota.
I had asked Beryl to pick me up at Thornhill when I passed over on return from Gatooma. She would recognise my return by my changing engine revs up and down a couple of times over her house. However, I stupidly dived for a low-level pass over her house then climbed steeply to enter the Thornhill circuit. Considering I was behind the Air Traffic Controllers’ field of view, I was surprise that, almost immediately, Thornhill Tower broadcast “Aircraft flying low level over Riverside identify yourself." I owned up immediately but on entering the Squadron crew-room I received instruction to get dressed and report immediately to the Station Commander.
Wing Commander Wilson had seen operational service with the RAF during the war and, thereafter, became a prime mover in re-establishing the Southern Rhodesian Air Force. Many stories of this stocky, softly spoken and immensely strong man had reached our ears. One was that he preferred direct disciplinary action to conventional military processes. It was rumoured that, rather than give a man the option of court martial, he took offenders out of sight behind a hangar and laid them low with a couple of mighty blows. Because I was engaged, the CO had asked Beryl and me to baby-sit his two daughters on a few occasions while he and his wife Lorna attended official functions. Within his home it was hard to believe that this man could be anything but a gentle person. Nevertheless, I was very nervous when I reported to his secretary who wheeled me straight into the CO’s office.
Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot Page 6