With three last flights today, Greg’s basic training is over. A successful time with the camera, at last: 18 plates exposed and no reported jamming. Greg’s final flight at Yatesbury was in a BE2e, the type of aircraft in which he had his first flight on 14 March 1918.
Date: 6.5.18 Hour: 2.0 Machine type and No.: RE 5146 Passenger: – Time: 1 hr 0 m Height: 2500 Course: – Remarks: Photos. 18 plates exposed
Date: 6.5.18 Hour: 5.50 Machine type and No.: RE 5148 Passenger: – Time: 40 m Height: 1500 Course: – Remarks: Practice turns etc. 1 landing
Date: 6.5.18 Hour: 7.25 Machine type and No.: BE 8660 Passenger: – Time: 40 m Height: 1500 Course: – Remarks: Camera
It was just over seven weeks since Greg’s first flight:
Good-bye-ee!
So the instructors would see another batch of students off, and the young airmen would wonder what their fate would be. Goodbyes all round:
And no doubt there would be some convivial celebration. At the Officers’ Mess, maybe? Or perhaps at a nearby hostelry, such as the Waggon & Horses in Beckhampton, which doesn’t look as if it has changed much in the last 100 years…apart from the addition of a TV aerial:
As the song goes:
Bonsoir old thing, cheerio! chin chin!
Nah-poo! Toodle-oo!
Good-bye-ee!
To Hursley Park…
Greg’s training would continue at Hursley Park in Hampshire, with the next entry in his log book being dated 16 May 1918. And before the month was out he would be posted to France.
