Remembering Wings & Wheels 2, June 20 & 21, 2009!
Dedicated to the Memory of Kaitlin Vanderhoek!
RCAF Stn Aylmer
No.14 Service Flying Training School opened on 3 July 1941 and included two relief landing fields located at St. Thomas and Tillsonburg. Original equipment was 50 Harvard Trainers, increasing to 100 three years later.
Student pilot intake was limited to graduates of Elementary Flying Training Schools. Initially four courses lasting sixteen weeks were trained simultaneously. In 1943 this was increased to six, when training was expanded to include the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm pilots. No.14 SFTS was transferred to Kingston, Ontario 15 August 1944, but not before 4144 pilots graduated.
No.1 Flight Engineers School opened 1 July 1944, with courses graduating twenty-three weeks later. Technicians selected from volunteers were previous graduates from No.1 Technical Training School. Practical Training lasted seven weeks and covered thirteen multi-engined aircraft types, including the Halifax bomber. Graduate engineers destined for coastal commands received an extra six week air-firing course.
Prior to closing on 31 March 1945, 1706 Flight Engineers were graduated, all for the RCAF.
Copyright Paul Ozorak
(from the Spooner Memorial at 427
Wing, Air
Force Association of Canada)
T6 Canadian Harvard WWII trainer
