ATA Training in Practice

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Although the ATA was conceived as means to employ skilled pilots in support roles, the pool of trained pilots was soon drained by the demands of war. The ATA and no choice but to start training pilots in order to meet the demands placed on it. With astonishing speed, it created a large -- and highly efficient -- training establishment. Women were as fully integrated in training as they were in flying. 

Below one of ATA's women instructors, Joan Hughes, instructing on heavy bombers.

 

The ATA's first operational training school was co-located with ATA Headquarters at White Waltham. It opened in March 1941 with twenty instructors and twenty-nine aircraft. Just one year later, the number of training aircraft had grown to 100 and it was no longer safe to do all instructing at a single airfield, so a new training field was established at Luton. All the slow, elementary aircraft -- and the training conducted on them -- were moved to Luton, leaving only the faster, operational aircraft types at White Waltham. When the ATA initiated ab initio training as well, this was done from a satellite field of Luton called 'Barton in the Clay.' Finally, in December 1942, when the ATA undertook training on four-engine, heavy bombers, they operated from Bomber Command airfields in Yorkshire to ensure access to necessary spare-parts and maintenance on these highly complex aircraft. 

The types of aircraft employed for training corresponded to the aircraft used by the RAF for training. Thus elementary training was carried out primarily on Tiger Moths and Magisters. Class II training was conducted mostly on Masters and Harvards, and Class III and IV training used Oxfords and Blenheims. The Halifax became the standard trainer for heavy bombers. 

The original instructors at the ATA's training schools were all experienced BOAC instructors. When in March 1943 these instructors were recalled to BOAC to start preparing for the post-war needs of the corporation, the ATA drew instructors from its own ranks and to a lesser extent from the RAF. While the original instructors had been men of vast experience both as pilots and instructors, the ATA's own instructors although less experienced overall had the advantage of having done for a several years the job for which they were training pupils. It is notable that from this point (1943) onwards, women instructors were employed to train both men and women. Particularly impressive was the employment of Joan Hughes, one of the original eight women pilots, as an instructor on heavy bombers.

Once the training program was up and running, the routine for all new pilots entering the ATA followed roughly the same pattern -- regardless of previous rank, position or title. Cadets were given a medical, signed articles of employment, and swore not to pass on official secrets. They were given a basic ground course in meteorology, map-reading, navigation, signals, engines and other technical subjects. The technical course lasted only two weeks per class of aircraft, or cumulatively ten weeks for pilots who qualified on the flying boats, but never all at once. 

After completion of the ground course, pilots flew in trainers with double controls with instructors until the instructor determined they were ready to solo. Once comfortable with the machine, the student-pilot was assigned thirty cross-country flights to various destinations across the country.  These flights were designed to hone navigation skills (without instruments and radios) and to help the pilots become familiar with the unique hazards of flying in wartime Britain -- e.g. avoiding barrage balloons and anti-aircraft batteries, finding camouflaged airfields, navigating without radios, evasive action when confronted with enemy aircraft and the like. After successful completion of these thirty cross-country flights, the cadet was granted ATA wings and assigned as a Third Officer to a Ferry Pool.

The next stage of training took place 'on the job' and entailed delivering aircraft as assigned by the Operations Officer of the Pool. Pilots were required to gain 50 hours on Class I aircraft before going on to training on Class II. When a pilot was deemed ready for progression to Class II, he/she was sent to back for training that followed the same pattern starting with ground training, dual instruction, and then solo flying cross country.  After successfully completing Class II training, the pilot returned to his/her Ferry Pool, qualified to take on many more jobs. The pattern was repeated for qualifying on Classes III, IV and V. 

In this way, a pilot not only progressed at his/her own pace, but was available for ferrying duties in the shortest possible time. The entire system enabled pilots to spend as little time as practical away from the business of ferrying. As a rule, pilots with even a little experience, rarely needed more than a month to qualify on Class I aircraft, and most pilots were flying Class II aircraft in between four and six months. The conversion to Class III was equally easy for most pilots coming up through the system. When it came to the heavy bombers, the ATA sought to lengthen training on the job by initially allowing a pilot to deliver a familiar aircraft (e.g. Halifax) roughly ten times before assigning an unfamiliar heavy. 

ATA training is remembered fondly by many former pilots. For example,

 What a fantastic training and how confident it made us all. I still marvel at the fact one could climb into a totally unknown aircraft, thumb through our Pilot's Handling Notes, spend a little time familiarising oneself with the layout of the aircraft and ... then away into the wild blue yonder. [June Farquhar quoted in Y.M. Lucas, WAAF with Wings, GMS Enterprises, 1992, 137]
Or: 

The ATA training was second to none. It was thorough and extremely well worked out. [Diana Barnato Walker, Spreading My Wings, Grub Street, 2003, 50] 

The effectiveness of ATA training is best demonstrated by the extremely low accident rate per hour and sortie flown.  In the course of the war, only 176 ATA aircrew were killed while flying, for 415,000 hours flown and 309,000 aircraft delivered.  

A former ATA woman pilot is one of the leading female protagonists in the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy about the Berlin Airlift.  Find out more about the series at: https://helenapschrader.net/bridge-to-tomorrow/

Watch a video teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rS_Mwy3TU 

                                      

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