Page 50 - Demo

46often jammed and so I had a manual choke put in with a lever to operate it on the floor. Driving was more complicated in those days.Exeter was not an RAF station and so to begin with I stayed in a pub. The rules were that for the first 21 days you got a rate 1 which paid for everything after that you were on lodging allowance which was much less. I had flown and gone solo in a chipmunk in May but I cannot remember that. It might have been at Ballykelly. Anyway, the Exeter flight Commander was Rufus Heald who was quite a character in the RAF and he decided to take me in hand. We can%u2019t have had many cadets to fly during the week and so he gave me a quick course which went well. Then I think the aircraft were all going to summer camps on RAF Stations and so I went up to Lindholme to fly there. First, I had a check out with the Squadron Commander who was about to retire and was terrified that if something went wrong, he would lose his pension. We taxied out and took off across the grass. Consequently, the acceleration was slower than I was used to and I pulled back a little too early. Realising the mistake, I corrected, and everything went fine. I was shocked when he said I wasn%u2019t good enough and he wanted me checked by another QFI. That trip was fine but after we had landed the boss took the QFI aside and although the flight could not be faulted, I was grounded which was very disappointing. I spent the next 3 weeks or so helping with the administration of the camp which was actually quite good fun. One day one of the pilots landed and the aircraft ground looped. That is it swerved round and ended up facing the wrong way. The boss accused the pilot of landing with the brakes on and he was also grounded. He swore that he hadn%u2019t, but the boss would not listen. Later that day the engineering officer came in and said that the brake drum had actually broken up and that had caused the problem, it was a definitely technical problem and not pilot error. Reluctantly the boss let the pilot fly again, but I don%u2019t think he ever apologised. The summer camp came to an end and I went back to Exeter.