1946

The second Navy EFTS course passed out in mid-January 1946, 17 officers graduating from an original intake of 20. It was a time of further change, for when No.3 EFTS RN Course started on 23rd January, it did so with 33 Royal Navy officers, plus one Dutch naval officer and 15 Dutch ratings. This was the first time that aircrew from outside of the Commonwealth had been trained by 29 EFTS.

Overhead of Clyffe Pypard, shot by a 540 Sqn Mosquito PR.34 on 14th April 1946. The aircraft was flown by Flt Lt AGW Livingstone DFC from Mount Farm; he also photographed the airfield at Alton Barnes on the same mission.

 

The continuing exit of time-expired Flying Instructors to civvy street led to an inevitable shortage, and this was met by posting in eight Flying Officers from No.7 PRC at Harrogate. As of 1st January 1946, 29 EFTS possessed 62 Tiger Moths and during that month, despite gales, rain and snow, just over 828 hours were flown.

 

During March, approximately eight Tiger Moths were transferred out, mainly into storage, while three more (T6684, R4766 and T8181) were sent to RAF Melksham as instructional airframes,

becoming 5901M, 5902M and 5903M, respectively. This left around 50 DH.82s with 29 EFTS, continuing with Naval EFTS training and RAF PRC refresher flights.

 

Poor weather throughout February and March consisted of snow and gales, the latter so severe that on 19th March, Tiger Moth “DE843” (not a 29 EFTS aircraft, but probably DE842) was overturned while taxying (Flt Lt FJ Walter was uninjured). It also meant that No.3 EFTS RN Course did not pass out until 15th May, having taken its ground exam during April. Rather confusingly, No.5A RN Officers Grading Course was initiated with 17 personnel on 17th April 1946, even though there would appear to have been no preceding ‘No.5 Course’ – it appears that courses had been renumbered from ‘1’ at the beginning of the year and now comprised ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ iterations, so that for instance, No.5B Naval Grading Course (8 RN officers) ran from 15th May to 12th June and No.5C NGC (9 RN officers and 9 ratings, 9 Dutch officers and 6 ratings) began on 12th June and graduated on 10th July.

 

Equally confusing was the situation with RAF EFTS Refresher courses, which seem to have been renumbered at this time, so that No.10 RAF EFTS Refresher Course started on 1st April, with 33 AC2 cadets, and these courses then continued in numerical order roughly every 6 weeks.

 

The 29 EFTS permanent staff strength as at 30th June 1946 was: 22 officers and 36 other ranks. Operating with approximately fifty Tiger Moths since March, from the end of July to the early part of September 1946, another 20 of the type were reassigned elsewhere and flown out, again mainly into storage. This was in main part due to the reduction in the training commitment, with an expected No.12 EFTS Refresher Course on 22nd July being cancelled and thereafter only the Naval Grading and ex-PRC training of RAF personnel being undertaken. Even then, the PRC training gradually tailed off, to the point that from 7th to 21st August (when No.6B Naval Grading Course commenced), there was no flight training being done by the unit. The 200-odd flying hours logged during the month were mainly by the instructors, maintaining proficiency, and including night flying.

 

(Right) - Peter Desmond Ferguson (born 11th June 1924 in London) arrived at 29 EFTS, Clyffe Pypard as a Flying

Officer flight instructor on 14th January 1946 from 7 Personnel Reception Centre at Harrogate. He served at the

Wiltshire camp for a year before departing in January 1947 for release at Woodley. It would however appear that

he spent only a short period in civvy street, as when he took his Royal Aero Club certificate on 29th March 1947,

he declared himself as a “qualified service pilot”, but with the profession of apprentice cable engineer. At this

time he was living in Chelmsford. On 1st November 1947, Ferguson was granted the substantive rank of Flying

Officer (with seniority from 28th February 1946, and the following year was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on a

short-service commission (six years on the active list and four years in reserve). He was appointed to a

permanent commission on 1st October 1954. Promoted to Squadron Leader on 1st January 1969, he retired

from the RAF at his own request on 28th April 1979, though his service did not even end there: on 18th October

1979 Ferguson was appointed to a commission in the RAFVR Training Branch as a Flying Officer, initially for 5

years, but extended until he finally relinquished his commission on 11th June 1989, his 65th birthday.

 

Peter Ferguson died in Letchworth on 16th August 2007.

 

Naval Grading at Clyffe Pypard came to an end in October 1946, with the termination of No.6C Course. Commencing on 18th September with an intake of 12 naval officers, No.6C Course graduated on 16th October. But the gap left by the departure of Naval training was filled by the commencement of RAF Grading, and 20 cadet pilots had already arrived on 18th September. Further intakes of RAF Grading cadets then arrived and departed monthly, though by October the permanent staff at 29 EFTS to support them had fallen to just 11 officers and 20 other ranks.

 

From 1st November 1946, the RAF Hospital at Wroughton assumed responsibility for the medical care of Clyffe Pypard, in place of Lyneham.

 

1946 ended very much on a whimper: there was no training activity following the departure of the RAF Grading Course on 2nd December and just 109 hours were flown for the rest of the month. It was a situation exacerbated by weather conditions described by the School diarist as, “extremely bad”.

 

29 EFTS Flying hours for 1946:

 

January            817.10 hours day, 11.05 hours night

February           1388.05 hours day, nil hours night

March               1360.40 hours day, 102.50 hours night

April                 1647.10 hours day, 82.45 hours night

May                  842.30 hours day, 16.35 hours night

June                 898.00 hours day, 13.00 hours night

July                  636.05 hours day, 13.30 hours night

August             277.20 hours day, 11.40 hours night

September        458.50 hours day, 8.20 hours night

October            418.05 hours day, 6.15 hours night

November         187.40 hours day, 4.15 hours night

December         102.25 hours day, 7.00 hours night