Page 197 - Demo

193ed with a practise emergency. So, the first time I gave a student some kind of problem I asked him what he would do if solo. Quick as a flash he said that he would call the Duty Instructor for advice. %u201cOk%u201d I said,%u201cgo on%u201d. The duty QFI was of course the CI as he was unfit to fly. A few minutes later he came on to the radio very breathless and asked what was the problem and then gave the appropriate advice. We all continued to do this in the hope that he would declare himself fit and fly with us. He never did although he must have been much fitter by the end of the week.There was a problem with the Bulldog in terms of the centre of gravity. They had had a couple of incidents of the aircraft getting into a high rotational spin and the crew having to bail out. This was put down to a possibility of the centre of gravity being at the edge of what was allowed and so everyone had to weigh themselves with all their kit to make sure all was well. At one UAS they obviously were not doing this. When we were going to fly with a student, we would authorise the sortie and then ask the lad (only lads in those days) what we would do next. We had to go through a whole range of answers before they would remember to get on the scales on the way out. At the end of the visit the three of us were sitting in the crew room preparing our final report. Some students came in and did not notice us sitting behind a screen. They grumbled about our visit and said they would be glad when we went and they could stop faffing about with the scales. We had to debrief the Squadron Commander on the visit and went into his office to do so. He was another chap I knew who had been an entry before me at Cranwell. We told him what the students said, and he almost went white. A major criticism like that could have major repercussions on his career. We said that we would not make a big issue of it but he must do it properly in future. He was very relieved, but we felt we were there to help not just to criticise. I expect the students we heard talking had a very severe talking too later.