"raf battle of britain flight training" Topic
6 Posts
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| wardog | 06 Jan 2013 1:30 p.m. PST |
any documentaries i have seen state the raf pilots had 10- 15 hours on hurricanes and spitfires before engaging the Luftwaffe , makes it sound like that's all the training they had
how much basic and advanced training did they have first in
tigermoths and other types etc and mechanical flight simulators |
Sundance  | 06 Jan 2013 4:45 p.m. PST |
I don't remember specifically reading hours of flight training. However, just off the top of my head, I seem to recall some information indicating around 100 to 150 hours. What the documentaries are saying is that they had that many hours in type, not of total flying time. Generally speaking, training would have comprised somewhere between 100 and 250 hours. The training time was shortened in times of need and expanded when there was some luxury in order to train better pilots. For example, during the BoB, they would probably have hurried pilots through the training and cut some hours (though not information – in other words, they would have ahd all the training, just not as much practice in various aspects of it) in order to get more pilots into line units. By the end of the war, new German and Japanese pilots had pitifully little training – well under 100 hours, while American pilots, though still needed, were not in desperately short supply so they had returned to a more normal syllabus of training. |
| gweirda | 06 Jan 2013 5:59 p.m. PST |
(semi?)tangential post: A show that may be known to many, but thought to point it out to those interested in the subject…
YouTube link May not answer the OP directly, but fun to watch, imo… |
| 79thPA | 06 Jan 2013 6:01 p.m. PST |
I have to agree with Sundance. Pilots start out in trainers (sometimes a series of more complicated trainers). 10-15 hours in a Spit means a pilot who passed his training and earned his wings then spent 10-15 hours of familiarization with his/that particular aircraft type. |
 R Mark Davies | 07 Jan 2013 10:39 a.m. PST |
I think the OP might be confused. Late in the battle, replacement pilots were indeed shoved into Spits and Hurris with minimal training on type, in order to make up losses. However, 10-15 hours was by no means typical. |
| Mako11 | 07 Jan 2013 8:55 p.m. PST |
I've seen a chart somewhere, showing the differences for the various nations, during different periods during the war. It was in the back of a book on WWII air combat, but there may be one on-line as well. It was a nice bar chart showing the differences well. Late war Luftwaffe training hours really plummet in 1944 and 1945. |
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