Language selection


Search veterans.gc.ca

Different Aircraft and Tough Navigating

Heroes Remember

Different Aircraft and Tough Navigating

Transcript
I was of the opinion, because I was about 22 years of age by that time, and I thought you know, all these young 18, 19's, they were the ones that were going to be fighter pilots and I was quite surprised when they picked me and sent me to a fighter pilot training center so I was sent up to Usworth in Northern England and we trained on what they called the Miles Master. It was a two seater in-line motor type of air plane. We trained on it and then also on Hurricanes. We received very few hours on account of the weather was bad. You would fly out to sea and do gun practice and coming back you would, you could look down from about 10, 15,000 feet you could look down and see the aerodrome below you but you'd get into this industrial fog and the lower you get, you got lost and you couldn't find the aerodrome. So what we had to do was fly to Durham, which is the city of Durham, and there was a castle and a cathedral there. We saw the spire of the cathedral, we'd circle it and fly due west until we hit a very large mausoleum that we could see and then we'd go two minutes north and we'd hit our aerodrome so that was pretty fancy navigating.
Description

Mr. Wilson discusses his surprise at being selected for fighter pilot training, and goes on to describe training on the Miles Master and Hurricanes. He describes the challenge of navigating in industrial cloud cover.

Gordon Wilson

Gordon Wilson was born on December 5, 1917 in Limerick, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Air Force was no longer accepting recruits when he enlisted so he joined the Royal Regina Rifles. Six months later, Mr. Wilson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at Brandon, Manitoba. His first wartime deployment saw him serving in North Africa near El Alamein, where he initially flew Hurricanes in a Royal Air Force squadron. He later piloted Spitfire 9’s in Sicily, Italy and the Middle East. After the war, Mr. Wilson completed a university degree and became a museum curator.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:13
Person Interviewed:
Gordon Wilson
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Branch:
Air Force
Rank:
Flying Officer
Occupation:
Pilot

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

Related Videos

Date modified: