ATA CHALLENGES: AIRCRAFT

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In retrospect, the ATA as an organisation out-performed expectations, but that wasn't inevitable.  As with everything that works well, it is easy to forget that the ATA faced significant challenges. None of these was greater than flying a vast array of different aircraft without the opportunity to train on them in advance.

From the open cockpit trainers 

to the heavy bombers and flying boats, 

the ATA flew them all.
 

Altogether, the ATA flew 147 different types of aircraft. To cope with challenge of flying such a vast array of aircraft, the ATA developed the system of classifying aircraft by characteristics into six broad categories: Class 1 (Single-engine), Class 2 (Advanced Single-engine), Class 3 (Light Twin), Class 4 (Advanced Twin), Class 5 (Four-engine) and Class Six (Flying Boats). It then developed concise, comprehensive "Handling Notes" and "Pilot's Notes" for each individual aircraft. 

The "Handling Notes" ran about thirty pages per aircraft and contained all essential specifications condensed down from more comprehensive manufacturers handbooks and technical drawings. They contained useful diagrams, for example, of the fuel system or key pieces of equipment. Critically, these notes were written for pilots -- not engineers -- and they were written with the ATA function in mind. Information about combat systems or aerobatic performance was left out as superfluous. Instead, the ATA's internal test pilots worked out what the optimal cruising speeds were, and identified the best flap and engine settings for slow and low flying such as the ATA did. The Handling Notes also drew attention to any unusual characteristics such as 'a pronounced trim change when the flaps are lowered' or 'a tendency to swing on landing.'  These were things that a pilot routinely flying the same type of aircraft rapidly learned to anticipate and compensate for. An ATA pilot, on the other hand, might be flying an aircraft for the first time and often took responsibility for the aircraft in a location where no one familiar with it was on hand to introduce it. 

The Pilot's Notes were  a loose-leaf notebook of 4x6 inch cards on which in very fine print all the essential information about each aircraft was printed. They didn't explain how the aircraft worked, they simply provided the particulars necessary for getting an aircraft safely from point A to point B under normal flying conditions. Effectively, the were an even more condensed version of the Handling Notes, with recommended take-off, climbing, cruising, landing speeds, rpms, boost, mix, pitch, engine and oil temperatures and pressure etc. etc. etc. 

The compact, handy and durable format of the Pilot's Notes enabled them to be carried around in a pocket and consulted directly in the cockpit. ATA pilot Diana Walker, for example, admitted that she could never remember all the relevant specifications and so she didn't even try. She simply "mugged up" the take-off, climb and cruise speeds and then "when she got to the other end, read up on the landing details while in the circuit." [Diana Barnato Walker, Spreading My Wings, Grubstreet, 2003, 52.] 

My favourite example of this practice, however, was provided by Peggy Eveleigh. She reported: 

My first flight in a Barracuda I shall not easily forget. I had to take one from Worthy Down up to a Fleet Air Arm Station in Scotland, from where I had another aircraft back again. I was sitting in the aircraft checking to see where everything was, when two naval officers approached me. One of them climbed up to the cockpit, and I saw he was a Fleet Air Arm pilot. He told me that both of them had got leave and that their home was in Scotland. They had permission to fly with me if I would take them as passengers.... Very reluctantly, I agreed. They both climbed into the observer's seat and, when ready, we took off. I decided to make a half-way stop to refuel and when I got to the circuit, I joined it and then got out my little book, 'Ferry Pilot's Notes,' to check how many degrees of flap I should use on the approach. I came into land very carefully... I managed to make a quite reasonable landing and taxied to control and got out. I asked my passengers how they were, and they said "Fine, but we were a little bit worried when we saw you reading a book going around the circuit! Do you always do that sort of thing?" I explained that it was, in fact, quite frequent practice among us when flying strange types as it was not always possible to keep everything in one's head and it was much better to check and be sure!" [Y.M. Lucas, WAAF with Wings, GMS Enterprises, 1992, 77-78]

The track-record of the ATA, with an exceptionally low accident rate vindicated the practice of Pilot's Notes and their use, while flying, by the pilots. The ATA achieved a 99.94% delivery rate, and experienced just 1,200 serious accident and 173 fatalities for 309,011 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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