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Old 24th September 2007, 14:25
Franek Grabowski Franek Grabowski is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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Re: Circus, Ramrods, Rhubarbs & Sweeps July 1941

225 hours?! That is dramatically low, especially comparing to later 600 hrs training. I also note, what has been noted before, that too much faith was put on a radio communication and that in general British pilots were untrained with making visual contact and observations. I guess that the lot you had to learn flying formation had a much higher flying time, and that they have learned to keep visual contact with the formation all the time. Otherwise I bet they switched off r/t, as nobody would understand an excited Briton over a HF set then in use, especially speaking essentially no English.
How about your training at the OTU? I suppose you had some 40 hrs, but would they learn you anything but some Hurricane flying? My question, because later in the year RAF switched for operational training in resting squadrons, where experience was more up to date.
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