My old stamping ground - Linton-on-Ouse. I was there as an armourer Nov 82 to May 84, and enjoyed every minute. In May 84 I left for two short detachments - Hereford and Scampton - followed by a posting as a Sergeant to Church Fenton, doing more of the same - and I enjoyed that too.
The Yard of Ale is an RAF tradition. Every student pilot who lands his first solo, downs the Yard (roughly two an a half pints). As you said, these chaps are smart capable trainee pilots, but they also like to have a laugh and celebrate their brilliant achievement with traditions such as this, having a couple of drinks afterward, in my opinion, is not considered stupid at all.
At 14:00, this instuctor is extraordinary. He's lucky his pilot students don't smash straight down into the ground when he shouts at them like that. His actions are the opposite to everything he's just said.
I agree - he is like a bloody nag! I have had several great instructors in civilian flight training, licence renewal tests etc over many years of flying - not one would nag and go on like this! But they were all great teachers without it!
Fully agree, what a hypocrite. Great instructional technique, be better, try harder, watch me do it 'that's magic now'. I thought it was Alan Partridge instructing at one point.
Old school methods Being critical & pressuring it’s a tactic to separate character someone who can handle pressure. Trainers/Seniors push buttons to get you out of your comfort zone it’s to make you work. Remember this is an era where the RAF stood out as the best. IMO you will find many pilots who went through the ranks & remember it very well for many reasons. Harsh environment & training was heavy but it worked. For example when you are sparring/boxing training with someone who doesn’t pose any challenges is no good for you, you will not learn improve. Spar/box someone who is extremely skilled & pressures you to work hard you speed up your capabilities & skill. Simple as that!
The instructor was extremely unprofessional. He ridiculed the student remorselesly, potentially ruining any confidence the student had gained. I speak as a teacher and if he had taught like that in my college, he would have been sacked.
it is all about accuracy, the proper pitch attitude and the correct thrust settings and above all else keeping it in trim. You can hear the quite escalation of workload for the student pilot. These early jet trainer cockpits are also hot and uncomfortable and a tight fit for even average sized pilots. It is not as easy as people might think!
I watched this series as a 11 year old and have watched it many times on RU-vid over the last 3 or 4 years. I often wonder do some of the instructors profiled in this ever do the same and think my goodness what a prat I was! This guy Jameson saying that you need to build a relationship and not shout at the student. Next thing he's bollocking like mad about trimming the plane out,,,,,, blah blah. This instructor only had 5 years of flying himself. He is then 'biting his finger nails' and moaning like an old woman when Martin Oxborough goes solo. - Not very cool.... Elsewhere there is bollocking going on 'Your making some stuuuuuupid mistakes!' How the hell a student is meant to fly under that is beyond me. Poor instructing from my point of view.
Completely agree, the bollocking was unbelievable, funny at 14:58 after bollocking him for most of the circuit just before touch down he say "now just relax" unbelievable. What a terrible instructor. Reminds me of my first instructor who basically gave me anxiety and ruined my flying career.
When I learned to fly, as a civilian undertaking the PPL syllabus and paying for my own training, it was not that much better. Curiously I found that those who only instructed part time were considerably more relaxed, friendly and effective than those who were full time. However with regard to the TV series I believe that editing may have made something to do with how the instruction and 'patter' appears on screen. Nevertheless a good point about the instructors own limited career history at that point in time,
Came here to say this. Of course had instructors like this, I think I've learned to deal with them mentally. Shouting and dripping at someone may help motivate squaddies yomping in army basic training, but this attitude when a person is trying their best to combine a lot of fine mental and motor skills, these goats bleating and taking their own insecurities out on students, just embarrassing, poor drills, counter productive and sad.
Cannot believe the pilots are being criticised for having a yard of ale. They are fit, tough and hard working young men not snowflakes. They've EARNED the right to down that in one.
Retired airline pilot here. The instructor (14:10 onwards) has completely the wrong attitude. He will demoralise the student and make learning more difficult than it needs to be.
28:21 '....Don't be so tense....' If the instructor had himself been instructed on how to instruct (as opposed to doing it like it was done to him) he might not have wasted so much money (fuel, air time) by increasing the student's tension: and getting in the way of his learning. Why do people who can do it - and then without any subsequent training- think they can teach others to do it?
@@stephenvince9994 Agreed. Poor guy. All my flight instructors were generally very calm unless something needed to be done right now. There is enough stress in the cockpit without that. Funny that he says in the debrief that "he was a little bit tense, probably fear of the ground meeting the aircraft ...." more like fear of the instructor?
@@thepumpdoctor1 it was a long time ago but the CFS doctrine was something like 'Assess, Analyse, Insentivise'. Summed up by the phrase 'That was crap; do it better or you're chopped'.
i must qualify this remark also as i'm sure the argument will be "do you have to be a car enthusiast to drive a car?" to which of course the answer is no but my response to that is that we aren't there yet. flying a plane is still a task for specialists. not everyone can fly a plane, at least, not yet.
hasn't that decompression test just given everyone the benz!!, or like in the james Bond film (thunderball?) just killed you, like in a submarine or in space?
Ridicule and shame doesn't make better pilots. I've seen a lot of these British military training documentaries and as a flight instructor of 20 years it doesn't make for good instruction or well trained students. All it makes is people washing out of flight training for no good reason at all. And don't give me the party line about "oh it's got to be stressful because the job is stressful" or "if the student can't handle it then they're not gonna make it anyway and probably get kills" BS. You don't do that to students in primary flight.
~ 24:00 mark - i disagree with what seems to be the universal military perspective ( at least in UK and Canada ) in this regard in that i believe the candidate must *want* to fly specifically and show some aptitude / predisposition for it. i just don't accept the view that "this person is an outstanding officer, therefore, he can be anything we teach him to be". that's rubbish IMO. i'm sure he can be made a pilot, but such a person will never be a *great* pilot.
But they could. Its really not all that hard. My 15 year old son can fly a plane. I think the difference is ( to use your car analogy ) The difference between a regular road user and an F1 Driver as far as fast jets go anyway.
~ 28:00 - uuuuhhh what a terrible ending. smart people doing stupid things. alcohol's role in western ( especially UK and Australia's ) popular culture has got to change.
