landed. I also managed to be sick after the first flight on my two succeeding terms and that was the result of sheer excitement too. I got in three further lessons with Flying Officer Bates during the next three days, by dint of ringing up and enquiring about spare flights and the one I remember well was the second. Over the intercom tubes, my instructor asked if my Sutton harness, which was supposed to belt me firmly into my seat, was tight. I thought it was, told him so and the next moment the Avro was upside down, with me dangling on my harness six inches off my seat and with my knees up to my chin. Never once after that did I fly with loose harness.


Cadets were transported the seven or so miles to Abingdon by an open truck. On arrival outside the Squadron’s hangar, one of the brick-built structures with immense steel doors


The author in Sidcup flying suit at Abingdon, May 1934


which were typical of permanent RAF stations at the time, there was always an almighty scramble to be among the first into the locker room where we donned the Sidcup flying suits provided for us. These had fur collars which, whilst they kept you warm in the air, invariably bore more than a trace of previous occupation by pilots who, like me, could succumb to sickness. On the ground, sickness was not too difficult to deal with. In the air, the Sidcup collar invariably suffered, and cadets could be seen indecorously rushing along the line of suits, sniffing eagerly at each collar and picking the least odorous. In the Michaelmas term of 1933 I finished up with 10 hours 50 minutes of flying time. In a normal learning situation that should have easily been enough to see a pilot go solo. But the Squadron – or perhaps it was the University which


18


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