Edzell was a permanent R.A.F. station and had undoubtedly the best facilities of any I'd seen. There were only about 10 permanent officers and 12 students taking the course. Each of us had our own private room and bat-man, but in my case it was a bat-girl and you can imagine my surprise the first morning when I heard a knock at my door and after I called that it was open and to come in, I looked up into the face of a pretty girl who was holding a cup of hot tea. When she asked if she could do anything else for me I considered having her scrub my back in my private shower.

At Edzell all our flying was dual and our instructors were veteran pilots who had completed two or three operational tours and were rewarded with the job of teaching rookies how to fly "blind" or only on instruments. The Oxfords we flew had black windscreens which could not be seen through with the naked eye, while the instruments could be seen with normal vision, but could not be seen with the special goggles which enabled you to see out the windscreen. This made for some interesting flights. The radio landing aids in use at Edzell were the most modern in the R.A.F. and in a lot of ways not much different than that in use on commercial airlines today. Our days were spent in the Link Trainer and in the Oxford practicing flying under simulated bad weather conditions with zero or limited visibility. On the last day of our two week course, to obtain top marks we had to take off, do a normal circuit and land without any outside visibility. By using a radio altimeter, inner and outer marker beacons, very accurate directional instruments, as well as a little verbal help from my instructor, I was able to make a nice three point landing. It was quite a thrill and extra special because I even landed in the middle of the runway. I really enjoyed my stay at Edzell and it made me realize life as a permanent officer in the R.A.F. would be pretty nice.