f LIGHT, 27 September 1957 flying ability, have flown 1,750 hr as first pilot and have compieted a Canberra tour

of duty, and four-engine experience is desirable. Second pilots must have flown at least 700 hr as first pilot and have completed a Canberra tour. Navigators also must have completed a Canberra tour (bomb-aimers, in addition, will have undergone the Bomber Command course at Lindholme), and A.E.O.s must normally have flown a tour of duty with Bomber, Transport or Coastal Commands. Other A.E.O.s come from the Air Electronics School at Swanton Morley after they have graduated from the Royal Air Force Technical College at Henlow. Responsible to the commanding officer of 230 O.C.U. (who is also the chief instructor) are the chief flying instructor, W/C. C. C. Calder, D.S.O., D.F.C.; the chief ground instructor, S/L. Alexander Maisner, A.F.C.; and specialist departmental heads for navigation, weapons, air electronics, flight simulator and I.L.S. The training syllabus of the O.C.U. is divided into three phases, the first of which consists of four weeks' ground school. During this period pilots are instructed on aircraft performance and systems with an emphasis on flight planning and cruise control. Working models and sectioned components are used to demonstrate the various systems in the aircraft, and to show, for example, how to control fuel consumption so as to keep the aircraft within its eg. limits. Second pilots are instructed in their particular responsibilities, which include management of the fuel system in the air, control of cabin pressurization and recording of engine conditions. Navigators and A.E.O.sthe latter include signallers' duties among their tasksreceive instruction on their respective duties

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as applied to the Vulcan. Towards the end of this period pilots are introduced to the Vulcan flight simulator. Two weeks of combined ground school and flying form the second phase of the course, followed by a final six weeks devoted solely to flying. The first instructional flight in the Vulcan consists of a two-hour demonstration of its handling at high altitudes, followed by landings. After this comes a short cross-country flight and a demonstration of emergency systems. The first "solo" flight (trainee captain and his own second pilot) is the third exercise. Total flying time during the course comprises 55 hr on Vulcans (in 14 sorties, of which about half are at night, and including a number of long-range navigational exercises as far afield as the Atlantic and the Mediterranean), and a preliminary 10 hr on Canberras devoted to I.L.S. exercises. Each flight exercise is followed by a thorough debriefing analysis. In the training of pilots the Vulcan flight simulator is an important facilityas one realizes when told that the aircraft's initial pre-fiight check list contains 108 items, engine-starting involves a further 31, taxi clearance another 27 and take-off a further 21. More obviously important is the use of the simulator in teaching pilots to fly the aircraftat an hourly operating cost estimated as one-tenth of that of flying the Vulcanand to handle emergencies and instrument procedures. The Vulcan simulator in use at Waddington, the first of a number being built by Air Trainers Link, Ltd., of Aylesbury, incorporates an exact replica of the pilots' cabin, in which a crew's captain and second pilot receive instruction simultaneously. Before their first flight in a Vulcan, pilots carry out seven exer-

Avro Vulcans (4 Bristol Olympus turbojets) of No. 83 Squadron and No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit of Bomber Command, seen (left) during a flight over Lincolnshire and (below) on the ground at R.A.F. Waddington. The shield on the fin is the station badge; in the background below is the Electronics Sectiona scene of particular activity on a Vulcan station.