Pilot Training - The "Primary" Stage
Primary Flight Training is about mastering the elementary principles of the art of flying in theory and practice. The focus is on providing the knowledge and practice to execute the basic air work from take-off to landing with precision and confidence.
The
training methodology is pretty simple: Everything
is taken step by step, one (new) thing at a time. When - and
only when - the student has reached sufficient proficiency to
go ahead to the next stage.
The main purpose was to build up the confidence of the neophyte pilot in a new and vastly unknown environment. Any military training was mostly postponed.
At the end of this training phase the new "pilot" should have reached proficiency in handling light aircraft like the Tiger Moth or the Stearman. At this stage the training did not differ much from civilian flight training at the time. In fact, the US AAF contracted this stage of training to civilian flight schools in a large degree.
Preceeding the actual flight training, the cadet was exposed to the experience of a military "boot camp" of one sort or another, to make him familiar with the basic aspects of military ceremony and uniform.
Many of the students supplemented their text books with books on general aviation. "Stick and Rudder. An Explanation of the Art of Flying", by Wolfgang Langewiesche is a good example is this regard. And it is contemporary reading as well.
A rather hillarious personal account of a cadets first impressions on joining the US AAF for pilot training
Air Corps instruction and guidelines for Flight Instructors
A basic introduction to the physics of flight
A short review of common flight instruments, operation and interpretation
US Army Air Corps/ Army Air Force elementary flight training course
A RAF 1943 Training Manual for the flight student.
Preleminary Informartion on communication prodedures.
Overview Informartion on contemporary navigation prodedures.
A short list of terminology differences.
Technical information on the trainer aircraft used in military flight training.
