Show par wa GENERAL wr na 6 d HUGH S 0 0 wit PILOT TRAINING washington five wee weeks ks ago I 1 questioned the wal value ue and efficiency of the civilian pil pilot A training program which Is a plan to train pilots for military and naval service by farming the students out to civilian pilots in groups ot of I 1 from rom 10 to 40 to be trained at atso so much a head I 1 said that it was not properly supervised was dangerous and unlikely to produce many military and naval pilots who would not have to tart start all over again in the primary training of the armed services I 1 wrote that after seeing the pla plan n in process and talking with experienced and impartial training experts upon whose judgment I 1 rely from other such men that column received indorsement endorsement Indor but by some interested te in that program I 1 was told w with ith various degrees of indignation that I 1 did not know what I 1 was talking about wayne parrish editor of american aviation has watched d I 1 this development closely has recently made a study of it and has no not t as a recent gossip gossi p column implied the remotest po political lotical interest in an editorial in the september 15 issue he goes a lot further than did my column and even hints at the very odorous condition which may result in a congressional investigation assistant secretary of commerce hinckley wangled a total appropriation pria tion of to finan finance cc this program it was presented as a defense move to train pilots perhaps for mr Roosevel ts phantom planes the record is not clear as tc whether congress was told that nothing in the plan commits any trainee to any kind of military service but mr parrish reports that prospects are assured that there is no such obligation and told just to for get that part ot of it out of 77 graduates of the secondary course 76 seek military training g no military or naval authority Is very clearly on record but privately neither branch believes that a satisfactory substitute for the service primary courses can be given in this haphazard fashion those who doubted the disc wisdom lom of the transfer of the independent CAA to the political department of commerce do not feel much encouraged by these developments nor by the increasing sabotage of the inspection spec tion service of the old CAA which hung up so remarkable a record of air safety on the transport lines veteran inspectors are being submerged weeded out or resign in disgust to make places tor for less experienced perien ced men it is hard enough to understand how military and naval pilots can be trained by a slapped together hay bay crate organization of civilian pilots but harder still to see how a I 1 safe and uniform course course of instruction can be given in so many independent schools by instructors themselves of a wide variety of experience peri ence and training without an inspection spec tion service rating almo almost 5 t perfect efficiency many of th the L r so 0 called private flying specialists w who ho are directing this loose jointed organization tor for training military and naval pilots were examined and tailed failed to qualify under the old inspection service as inspectors in this new specialist rating they receive higher pay than experienced perien ced inspectors a year as compared with or the latter figure being the highest rate in the old ins inspection ap action service this and similar PO policies are stripping that service of competent men much worse faults of carelessness and monkey business have been reported but I 1 have been unable to c confirm 0 them what this situation needs is a congressional investigation maybe it will get it but not until after the election DEFENDING BRITA BRITAIN IN while I 1 was in chicago rec recently antly the defend america by defending britain committee staged a mass meeting largely of gold coast intellectuals in the coliseum it was harangued by several eminent breast beating war criers all ali they ask now is to strip our inadequate army air force of 50 of its flying fortresses and detach from our navy the mosquito torpedo boats which congress recently prevented the pre president aident fron from sending to britain how this kind of thing could be done lawfully even under the attorney generals phoney opinion by which the destroyers were detached without even consulting congress appear these people dont care they dont even worry about that because they know the president care either after L the terrible rolling we got for or listening to our anglophiles Anglo philes in 1917 1 never expected to live to see the day when anybody would be dumb enough on the one hand band and have nerve enough on the others other to defy the great weight of bf american public opinion and try to push us into another world warto war to mike make the world sate safe for or anything but bul our own country this eastern scab seaboard oard propaganda apparently fully financed ay somebody is threatening to get away with it 11 I 1 I 1 |