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From
Spitfires to jetplanes Manitoulin's Dougal Hall has flown them
all
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by Michael Erskine
LITTLE CURRENT---At the end of the
second world war a small band of experienced Canadian airmen
from the 411 squadron were sent to Britain to fly the prototype
of the Gloster Meteor, the fastest plane in the British arsenal
and in doing so they became early pioneers in jet aviation history.
Little Current's Dougal Hall may well have been the first Canadian
pilot to fly a jet aircraft. "I couldn't say for sure, but I
probably was I guess," said Mr. Hall. "It was quite awhile ago
now. They built quite a few of them. There were quite a few
of them in the Hamdon museum when I was last over there." Mr.
Hall said he is not a man to dwell on the past, but he agreed
to an interview with the Expositor to talk about his flying
experiences, even though the period was long in the past. "A
lot of guys like to look back," he said. "I have always been
one to look forward." There were considerable differences between
the Meteor jet and the Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs Mr.
Hall had flown previously. "They were far different from the
propeller driven aircraft I had flown before," said Mr. Hall.
"For one thing they were quiet. You sit in the cockpit of a
Spitfire and you would think you were in a threshing machine,
with all the racket." Mr. Hall explained the engine in propeller
driven aircraft were either in front of or beside the pilot.
With a jet, especially the Meteor, the engines were located
further away from the pilot and well behind him. "You had to
be very careful, and there were different concerns than what
you would have in a propeller driven plane. For one thing, you
had to know how to ignite the engines. A lot of things could
put them out you know," said Mr. Hall. "There is always one
thing or another. Like anything else, you have to know your
aircraft." The range of the Meteor was very limited, giving
pilots a scant 20 minutes of air time. "You could basically
fly 10 minutes to France and then you had to turn around again,"
he laughed. "You could get 50 minutes in a Spit, up to an hour
and 20 minutes in a Mustang. Of course now everything is different,
new instruments, in-air fueling, it is all different now." The
aircraft was difficult to fly and the results of a failure could
be very unforgiving. "You couldn't bail out you know. The tail
would get you. They told us not to even bother to try and get
out," said Mr. Hall. "Make one little mistake and it was all
over." The danger of the assignment was very real. "They told
me that it cost $100,000 for the insurance they put on me for
the flight training when they sent me over," he laughed. A holder
of the Distinguished Flying Cross with Bar, Mr. Hall makes light
of his wartime experience. "They gave them out on a schedule,"
he said. "You shot down five planes and they gave you the first
one. It was like a game really." A very deadly game indeed,
Mr. Hall estimates that 50 per cent of the pilots he served
with did not come home, and not all of the losses were to enemy
fire. "We lost a lot of fellows to accidents," said Mr. Hall.
"We did a lot of blind flying, by instruments, and the instruments
were pretty primitive. It was kind of like driving an old Model
A Ford compared to now." Pilots would routinely fly 1,500 feet
through cloud cover going up and coming back down. "It would
take you quite a long time to climb to 30,000 or 40,000 feet,"
he said. "At one point we were flying off both ends of the airfields.
I lost a friend to a collision taking off." Then there were
the 'bounces,' planes hurtling down from 20,000 feet to attack
the tiny specks below them, only to discover that the planes
they were attacking were not the enemy. "You came in with guns
blazing, this was wartime, you shot first and asked questions
later," said Mr. Hall. The difficulty of correctly identifying
a plane from above at that distance was intense. "They all looked
pretty much the same." Added to the difficulty of identification
was the eagerness the young less experienced pilots brought
to their work. "Everybody wanted to get that first one, you
see," he said. The British held tight control over the fighters
noted Mr. Hall. "You could hardly blame them of course, they
had a lot of experience and expertise. That was also one of
the problems, they wanted everything done their way." The pilots
found flying in pairs to be more effective than the four to
eight plane flights the brass preferred. The extra planes flying
in erratic motion and the intense confusion of actual combat
made getting a clear shot at the target even more difficult
than it already was as friendly forces would constantly cross
the line of fire. "You never flew in a straight line, on the
level," said Mr. Hall. "That was the mark of an inexperienced
pilot. If you just flew straight on, concentrating on any one
thing, you could soon be in trouble." Experienced pilots dodged
continually and scanned above and below them for a target. "You
had a mirror to see behind you," he said. "You were always checking."
Although he flew nearly 20 hours in the early jet aircraft,
Mr. Hall did not break the sound barrier. "They would do a bit
over 500 miles an hour, (around 850 kilometers an hour) but
there was no way for them to go sonic until they curved the
wings back. The Americans discovered the secret to that, even
then it was a tricky operation." Getting in and out of any fighter
aircraft was no treat, according to Mr. Hall. "They all were
hard to get in or out of. Being a big person was a real problem.
They wanted people about 5' 8" and around 150 pounds." The cockpit
of many planes had sides at the top of the cockpit which flipped
open to allow pilots to get in and out easier while on the ground,
an innovation which made getting out while in the air doubly
difficult. The early jet fighters were hampered, like many plane
designs, with a dead spot in their flight patterns. "You would
hit a certain speed and the air would brake, (stop flowing over
the wings to the control surfaces) and that could be a problem
too." The braking system on those early jets was controlled
by a tank of air. "If you lost your air, it took a long time
to come to a stop," he said. "We had a 16 mile long runway to
bring them down." "They always cleared the runways when we came
in, it isn't like a commercial setup where they have you circling
around the base for a while," he said. "We came straight in."
Mr. Hall had well over 700 flying hours before he went into
combat, 500 hours is the minimum he feels a pilot should have.
"It's like learning to drive a car, the first time you are basically
just a passenger," he said. "I was lucky, I was at a training
school where we were getting 10 hours a day in the air. Some
pilots are lucky to get 10 in a month." "The Americans were
really well trained," he said. "I always admired them for that.'
Before a fledgling pilot was ready to take to the air in combat
he spent a long training period living in tent encampments,
under fairly primitive conditions, but once they were qualified,
pilots were lionized and pampered far above the average foot
soldier. "We were prima donnas," he said. "Of course we didn't
realize we were prima donnas. We stayed in the best hotels,
had the best of everything, once we qualified. We didn't realize
how good we were being treated until we got out," he laughed.
The end of Mr. Hall's service came in 1946. "The Brits wanted
their planes back," he chuckled. Mr. Hall was considering re-enlisting
but decided not to because of his father's reluctance. "He was
a communist or socialist or something like that and he thought
it was terrible thing, being in (the military)," he said. So
Mr. Hall returned to farming and later went back to school,
receiving a degree in chemical engineering from the University
of Toronto. "I mostly worked in analytical labs after that."
Asked why he had not pursued a career in aviation Mr. Hall laughed.
"It is like driving a Grand Prix racing car and then going on
to drive a tractor," he said. "How could you do that? Besides,
it was a pretty competitive field." Mr. Hall's two sons joined
the military after attending Royal Military College. They both
retired after 20 years of service. The Canadian military is
in dire straights by Mr. Hall's estimation, a victim of steady
peacetime cutbacks. "But there is nothing new there either,"
he said. "When I went in we didn't even have proper uniforms.
You had to change into civilian clothes to leave the base. But
that changed." The Meteor may put Mr. Hall into the history
books, but it did not make the list of his favourite aircraft.
"It flew well enough, and it was fast," he said. But his favourite
plane was the Spitfire 14. "That was my favourite, the Mustang
was a better plane, but my favourite was the Spit."
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EQAO
testing: Ontario's students barely make the grade
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by Michael Erskine
TORONTO---When it comes to the three 'R's,
reading and writing are falling far behind improvements in math
scores, according to the results of the latest report from the
Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). Math was
definitely the bright spot in the English Student results from
last May's testing of Grade 3 and 6 students. The passing grade
obtained by 61 per cent of Grade 3 students is up 18 per cent
over 1997-1998. Grade 6 has also shown improvement, with 54
per cent of students at or above the provincial standard, an
improvement of eight per cent from 1998-1999. Writing results
are virtually unchanged over the past four years for Grade 3
students, with 52 per cent per cent attaining or exceeding standards,
but there is some improvement in the Grade 6 level results.
With 53 per cent of Grade 6 students making the grade, a five
per cent gain has been seen over 1998-1999 results. Reading
levels also show little or no improvement for the past four
years, although Grade 3 students scored marginally higher this
year than they did two years ago. Reading at the Grade 6 level
is up five per cent from 1998-1999, with passing students making
up 53 per cent of the student body. French language schools
results lag well behind their English counterparts, and in reading,
the 41 per cent Grade 3 score is four per cent lower than 1999-2000.
Grade 6 French students have been in a slowing slide, with this
year's 54 per cent five per cent lower than 1998-1999 and only
four per cent lower than 1999-2000. Written language achievement
has shown a slight one per cent improvement over last year at
the Grade 3 level, and has slipped one per cent at the Grade
6 level. Math scores have not shown as dramatic an improvement
in the French system, with Grade 3 results remaining stagnant
over last year, although the 40 per cent score is still five
per cent higher than 1997-1998. The 60 per cent improvement
of Grade 6 students represents an increase of five per cent
from last year. As a result of its findings, the EQAO recommended
specific reading, writing and mathematics improvements and recommendations
for community partnerships in education. The EQAO advised the
government to use the results of the past four years to review
the province-wide effectiveness of its new curriculum. In addition,
the EQAO suggested the government, teacher's federations and
faculties of education help teachers develop and expand their
ability to assess their students. The assessment organization
also had some advice for school boards, advising them to carefully
review their action plans and to adopt measures to correct the
areas in which students appear to be systematically lagging.
For the front line workers, teachers and principals, the EQAO
provides the advice that they go over the specific subject related
recommendations contained in the EQAO report and review the
comments of the markers which will be returned with the marked
tests. The EQAO is an independent agency of the government of
Ontario. The agency conducts province-wide assessments of students
in Ontario's school systems and oversees the participation of
Ontario students in national and international competitions.
The tests from which the EQAO draws its results were conducted
over a five day period in May and involved over 285,000 students
in 3,293 English-language schools and 265 French-language schools.
School specific data has not yet been released. The data is
usually sent to the individual school boards who assess the
data before releasing it to the public. Acting EQAO chair Dr.
Bette Stephenson said, "Schools have an obligation to report
to parents and their communities on how well students are meeting
the expectations in the provincial curriculum." Dr. Stephenson
was Education Minister during the Davis government
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Central
Manitoulin council may delay landfill decision
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by
Neil Zacharjewicz
MINDEMOYA - Council for the Township of Central Manitoulin may
delay its decision with regard to signing a contract for curbside
pick up of waste and recyclables. According to Central Manitoulin
Clerk-Treasurer Mark Read, council was to consider two motions
at its November 5 meeting. The first was to give further consideration
to the curbside pick up contract, one of three possibilities
being considered by council. The second motion was to include
the possibility of further public consultation on the issue.
A public meeting has already been scheduled for Tuesday, November
13 at the Mindemoya Community Hall. As of press time, no information
with regards to council's decision was available. The recommendations
were being considered as all of the current landfill sites are
at or nearing capacity, and the sites are also located in potentially
environmentally sensitive areas. Council was considering three
potential options to deal with its landfill situation. The first
was to have no curbside pick up, and have the residents bring
their waste to the dump. The second option was to look at having
the township's waste hauled off the Island by Dodge Haulage
of Espanola. The third option was to have curbside pick up of
recyclables and general waste. Under the first option, the municipality
would be faced with annual operating expenses costing approximately
$136, 948, with the additional capital expense of constructing
a transfer station in Campbell at a cost of $10,000. Under this
option, the Mindemoya site would be closed for public access,
and all Carnarvon and Campbell waste would be transferred to
the Providence Bay site. Two attendants would be required due
to the segregation policy and higher traffic. The Big Lake site
would continue, with the elimination of bulky items and brush.
As well, snow removal, brush, white goods, metals and construction
materials were not included in the cost estimates. The township
considers this to be the least costly of the three options.
However, this option does have several disadvantages. There
would be no compaction of waste coming to the site, and there
would be decreased control of segregation at the site, which
would mean less opportunity for diversion. It would present
the likelihood of increased confrontation at the site, and increased
transportation for local residents. As well, the scheduling
of site operations could be a problem due to seasonal and weekly
fluctuations. It was also noted the current recycling program
would have difficulty handling the increased diversion due to
the size of the recycling bins. The second option, to have the
waste hauled away by Dodge Haulage, carries an estimated yearly
operations expense of $287,268. The initial capital expense
for this option is $12,300: $10,000 for the construction of
the Campbell transfer station, plus an additional $2,300 to
amend the township's Certificates of Approval. Under this option,
curbside pick up would have to be discontinued, as the trucks
could not dump into transport bins. As well, the Mindemoya site
would be closed for public access, and the costing for this
option does not include the handling of brush, white goods,
metals and construction materials. The Big Lake site would continue
operation with the elimination of bulky items, and no brush
would be accepted. All Carnarvon residents would be required
to bring their waste to the Providence Bay transfer station.
This option is considered advantageous because it would benefit
the local environment. Council identified a number of disadvantages,
including the ethical question of a potentially smaller-scale
version of the Adam's Mine proposal. Other considerations include
the high cost of tipping and transportation, the question of
whether haulage will eliminate the pressure to find a new long
term site, the fact there would be minimal incentive for diversion
because the tipping fee is based on the number of households,
and the decreased potential for Waste Diversion Funding. Furthermore,
there would be increased transportation for local residents,
who would have to drive their waste to Providence Bay, and the
fact the municipality would be at the mercy of a contractor
with regard to the possibility of increased tipping fees or
that service might not be acceptable. The third option, and
the one which council was going to table for consideration before
the proposal for more public consultation was brought forward,
is the possibility of curbside pick up of recyclables and general
waste. This option carries a yearly operating expense of $224,570,
with an initial capital expense of $9,000. The initial capital
expense includes $7,500 for blue boxes, and $1,500 for a proper
education campaign. As well, there would be the negotiable cost
of a recycling contract. Under this option, the transfer station
at Campbell would be eliminated, as would public access to the
Mindemoya site. It also assumes the current recycling depot
contract with Manitoulin Waste Management Services would be
eliminated. This option also does not include the handling of
brush, white goods, metals and construction materials. The costing
does not reflect snow removal. The Big Lake site would also
continue operation, with the elimination of bulky items and
brush. Council foresees two disadvantages to this option: the
apparent high cost of pick up due to the large rural distances,
and the possibility the contractor would not provide acceptable
service. However, council did foresee a number of advantages
with this option. First, it would provide the highest level
of service for residents. It would be more efficient, and operations
would be more regular and easier to schedule. There would be
minimal need for residents to attend the sites, and offers the
best possible control of the waste stream and segregation. In
fact, this option would offer the highest level of diversion
possible, including the separation of organics for composting.
The option maximizes the possibility of Waste Diversion Funding,
and materials would arrive at the site "precompacted." Following
the presentation of the three possible options at the upcoming
public meeting, there will be an open forum for residents to
comment on the three options.
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