After three days of no flying, Greg had three flights in three different RE8s today with Lt Thomas as instructor, and a taste of aerial combat training in a DH.6:
Date: 12.4.18
Hour: 2.0
Instructor: Lt Thomas
Machine type and No.: RE4462
Passenger: Self
Time: 15 min
Height: 1000
Course: Aerodrome
Remarks: Dual. 1 landing.
Date: 12.4.18
Hour: 2.25
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: RE6632
Passenger: –
Time: 40 min
Height: 2000
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: Practice turns. 2 landings.
Date: 12.4.18
Hour: 3.35
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: DH7672
Passenger: –
Time: 1 hr 30 min
Height: 2000
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: Fighting (Offence solo)
Date: 12.4.18
Hour: 6.30
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: RE4968
Passenger: –
Time: 35 min
Height: 1000
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: Landings (five).
Despite the somewhat nondescript weather, another significant day dawned for Greg on Monday 8 April 1918:
four flights in three different aircraft types (BE2e, DH.6 and RE8);
first use of bombs;
first solo in RE8; and
Greg was awarded his RAF Graduation Certificate – his ‘wings’.
Log book entry
Date: 8.4.18
Hour: 5.55
Instructor: Lt Thomas
Machine type and No.: RE4462
Passenger: Self
Time: 45 min
Height: 1000
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: Dual. Six landings.
Date: 8.4.18
Hour: 3.35
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: BE 1358
Passenger: –
Time: 55 min
Height: 3000
Course: Bombs. Successful.
Date: 8.4.18
Hour: 3.00
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: DH6 7226
Passenger: –
Time: 15 min
Height: 1500
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: Turns
Date: 8.4.18
Hour: 6.45
Instructor: –
Machine type and No.: RE6632
Passenger: –
Time: 35 min
Height: 2000
Course: [Aerodrome]
Remarks: First solo. Two landings
Bombs
Greg dropped his first bombs (probably 20lb Coopers) during the flight at 3:35 pm from BE2e 1358, a photograph of which featured in an earlier post on 14 March and is reproduced again here:
RE8 Solo
Greg’s first solo in an RE8 was significant enough for him to note in his log book. Possibly it was on this occasion that the following somewhat blurry photograph of him standing in front of an RE8 was taken:
Graduation
Greg’s RAF graduation certificate – a fairly crudely adapted RFC graduation certificate – was issued this day by the Central Flying School in Upavon (some 11 miles/18 km to the SSE of Yatesbury):
And Finally, the Weather…
In Wiltshire the weather was overcast in the morning and mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Back home in Holyhead, by contrast, Greg’s parents would have enjoyed not only a little over four hours of sunshine, but also, according to the Met Office records, a solar halo:
In earlier times, one can imagine that this would have been seen as an omen.