Caption reads "Twenty- four young aircraftsmen of the Royal Canadian Air-Force cheered on arrival at Prince Albert airport for training at No. 6 Elementary Flying School. Getting down to action at once, they drew lots to decide who should have the honor of the first flight. To the right, Aircraftsman Philpotts is shown in the rear cockpit of a Tiger Moth craft after his first training flight. Civil Instructor Earl Bowman, who took up the recruit, is shown in the front cockpit"
First flight – The very first time that I sat in a cockpit in the air and received a familiarization flight in an aircraft was at Prince Albert at the No. 6 Elementary Flying Training School. It was July 22, 1940. The instructor was a bush pilot, Al Bowman. While we were stooging about in the air in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, Bowman spied another Tiger Moth with a friend therein and this sighting, evidently, automatically meant a friendly dogfight. WOW, was I familiarized. I was hanging in the straps with my knees in my face for more time than I sat in the seat. After we landed, Bowman said that I was the first pupil in this first class at the School whom he had ever instructed and how did I like it? I answered that I thought it was mild. We became friends. Dick Waite, another bush pilot from Waite Fisheries, was the only other instructor I had at Prince Albert.
Spot landing – There was no doubt that these civilian, soon to become military, bush pilots taught me more tricks of the trade that paid off for me later on than did the military instructors. The bush pilots at Prince Albert taught many wise things to the greenhorns, and a method often took the form of a game. One of these games was “Spot landing” whereby a large circle was fabricated on the landing field and the pupils had to three-point their aircraft as closely as possible to the center of the large circle; one at a time, of course, but I wouldn’t have put it past us. Later on under operational conditions, the importance of maintaining airmanship airspeed and direction in forced landings brought me back to the bush pilot circles and the environmental conditions while trying to set down in the circles.
Spot landing – There was no doubt that these civilian, soon to become military, bush pilots taught me more tricks of the trade that paid off for me later on than did the military instructors. The bush pilots at Prince Albert taught many wise things to the greenhorns, and a method often took the form of a game. One of these games was “Spot landing” whereby a large circle was fabricated on the landing field and the pupils had to three-point their aircraft as closely as possible to the center of the large circle; one at a time, of course, but I wouldn’t have put it past us. Later on under operational conditions, the importance of maintaining airmanship airspeed and direction in forced landings brought me back to the bush pilot circles and the environmental conditions while trying to set down in the circles.
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