(probably with vibration) and, having caused the resistance to movement, had broken. There was smoke and a tongue of yellow flame rising from it. I simultaneously aborted the attack and sorted the matter out with my gloved hands. Satisfied with the situation, I continued with my sortie. I was told, afterwards, that I should have landed at once.
My scores on live-firing flights varied between missing the flag altogether, although I disputed that, and a reasonably high 13.2%. I flew eight live-firing sorties on the course. The average score for all of us was something like 5 or 6%.
If these scores seem low it must be remembered that we were only firing with half our armament on a target much smaller than any aircraft and could not close in to line astern for a 'kill'.
By now instances of neck-ache had disappeared. I had become able, with no difficulty, while strapped firmly in the cockpit, to see either tail fin - and just beyond - of my own aircraft. That is: with shoulders firmly facing forwards, I could see directly behind me - essential for the survival of any pilot in a dog fight.
We received instruction on the firing of rockets and on bombing, but we had neither simulated nor live practice with these munitions, neither did we receive any training or information to do with radar controlled interceptions.
I passed the course and by now had, in all, a total of 55 hours, 40 minutes on Vampires Mks 5 & 9, and 7 hours 5 minutes dual on Meteor T7s and Vampire T11s. Total flying hours on all types at this stage of my career, which was effectively the end of formal flying training, amounted to 297 hours and 30 minutes, plus a small amount of passenger flying.
During the last days of the course we were told that we would all be posted somewhere within the European theatre. Had we been posted farther afield we may have needed to buy tropical kit and would have been told. We were, however, not given our precise postings; they would be notified to us at home during the (hopefully) three weeks embarkation leave we were now about to enjoy. I say hopefully because I was warned that, as a qualified (but obviously inexperienced) fighter pilot, I could be called earlier to any posting and so had to be ready to leave home at virtually any time.
I was not sorry to leave Pembrey and its hardships but, as I was soon to learn, my training was far from over. 52