Page 217 - Demo

213must also have trapped at Church Fenton at some point. It is difficult to know where we went as we drove to the UASs and to Cranwell rather than fly. It all came to an end in June. My last exam wing work was a JP flight to RNAS Culdrose, then awarding a Competent to instruct rating to a Wing Commander there and after a night in their wardroom the long flight back to Leeming. I was to go back to Culdrose with my JP student almost exactly 10 years later, but more about her later. I was promoted to Squadron Leader and posted to Church Fenton as OC Standards Squadron.Chapter 21Church Fenton was a lovely station. There were 2 BFT Squadrons and the place was very relaxed. The training was of course taken seriously but off duty everyone knew each other and got on well. Standards Squadron only had 4 other instructors, I think. Our job was to maintain the standard of instruction on the base. This involved working QFIs up to upgrade their categories and to become IREs plus routine testing of students as required. We also had to do a certain amount of ground school instruction to the QFIs. I think that I managed to duck out of that. As a Squadron Commander I had to be the Duty Senior Supervisor (DSS) at least once a week, ready to give advice if there was a problem. The QFIs, once experienced enough carried out the job of Duty Instructor and sat in the tower watching what was going on. They would contact the DSS if there was a serious problem or if the weather was deteriorating or getting better. They could lower the phase but only the DSS could raise it and set it first thing in the morning. I had got rid of my Motor Bike at some point when I was at Leeming and had bought the first of a series of Mini vans from Eddy Bonnet. He lived a couple of doors down from us in Tholthorpe and he made his living buying old police vans, and selling them. They had various holes in them where equipment had been removed but they worked for a bit. When the cor-