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Tiger Moths and Harvards

Heroes Remember

Tiger Moths and Harvards

Transcript
There was what they called the Link trainer, and the Link trainer, it cleaned out a lot of people that wanted to be air crew, just failed their test with the Link trainer. If you passed the Link trainer and the rest of the exams, then we went to Portage la Prairie and I took my training on Tiger Moths. We received about 50 hours flying on Tiger Moths. Next we went to Yorkton and there I flew Harvards and Harvards, you jump from about 70 horse power on the Tiger Moths to about 550 with the Harvard and it was, I keep saying, that's what made men out of boys because if you could fly a Harvard, you could fly anything. And they're a beautiful plane but it was an American airplane and the control setup was quite different from what the British Tiger Moth had so it took quite a bit of training to fly the Harvards. They did have the record of if you got into a spin, you couldn't get out of it and this scared pilots for a while but we found out later that if your flying skills were good enough you could get out of a spin alright but it was pretty scary for young people just learning how to fly. After that we received our wings at Yorkton and we had a month's leave then we were sent to Halifax by train, a long, long train across Canada to Halifax.
Description

Mr. Wilson compares the experience of training in a single-engine Tiger Moth and the much more powerful twin-engine Harvard.

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:
2:14
Person Interviewed:
Gordon Wilson
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Branch:
Air Force
Rank:
Flying Officer
Occupation:
Pilot

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