Pilot – June 2018

pilotweb.aero | Pilot June 2018 | 85

Steve Slater

Stephen is CEO of the Light Aircraft Association,

Vice-Chair of the General Aviation Awareness Council,

flies a Piper Cub and spent seven years helping

restore the ‘Biggles Biplane’ 1914 BE2c replica

M

uch is rightly being
made of the exploits of
RAF pilots over the past
century, and their Royal
Flying Corps’ and Royal
Naval Air Services’ predecessors before
them. But have you ever wondered
who taught those original pilots to fly?
Many point to Robert Smith-Barry, who
in 1916 created the ‘Gosport’ methods
of flying tuition, but well before him
there was another less well-known
instructional pioneer. Frank Warren
Merriam is today an unlauded hero.
The early leaders in flying instruction
were in France where, inspired by
Wilbur Wright’s first public flights at
the Hunaudières race course five miles
south of Le Mans, a series of flying
schools were born. One of the most
successful was established in 1909 by
Louis Blériot and his business partner
Raymond Saulnier at Étampes near
Rouen. In 1910 they opened a second
school at Pau, where the southern
French climate made year-round flying
more practical, and in September 1910 a
third school was established at Hendon.
In the UK there were several busy
flying schools well before the First
World War. In addition to Hendon
there were schools at Brooklands and
at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain. Prime
among them was the Bristol School of
Flying, an offshoot of the Bristol and
Colonial Aircraft Company which began
its operations at Brooklands in 1910
under the instruction of the French pilot
Maurice Edmond, using the company’s
Boxkite biplanes.
Among Bristol’s earliest students were
Major Robert Brooke-Popham, General
David Henderson and Lieutenant
Colonel Frederick Sykes, all of whom
were to play a formative role in the
Royal Flying Corps. A fellow student
was Merriam, who gained his brevet
at Brooklands in February 1912 and
elected to remain at the school as a full-
time instructor. He had already gained

the accolade of becoming the first pilot

to fly above the clouds in a Boxkite.

“Up to this time I had never heard of

any pilot attempting to fly through the

clouds,” Merriam recounted. “No-one

but a fool would attempt it. Then after

giving myself no chance to retreat I

took off and started to climb. Visibility

was even less than I had thought, and

almost immediately I became completely

enveloped in the clammy vapour.

“Earth and sun were lost to view and,

with them, every fixed mark that had

guided my waking life. Never had I felt

more alone. Perhaps, if the clouds had

been thicker, my story might have had

a different ending; but after 500 feet

or so I could see it was getting lighter.

Then, with a breath-taking suddenness,

I found myself emerging into brilliant

sunshine with the infinite blue sky

above. As I scudded along the top of the

soft, white feathery plain, I felt as if I

could have flown on and into eternity.”

Back on earth, in September 1912

Merriam took over as senior instructor

at the Bristol School at Brooklands.

He took the opportunity to move away

from students graduating via passenger

flights and solo ‘hops’ to develop a new

style of ‘dual’ instruction.

“My new plan was to sit behind the

pupil giving him full charge of the

rudder but only part control over the

joystick, until he had acquired the ‘feel’.

When a pupil was sufficiently advanced

to be entrusted with the joystick I would

push his body forward or backward or

to one side and he moved the joystick

appropriately. The whole thing was

horse-sense. In fact, it often occurred

to me that the use of bits and reins

would be quite a sound idea. After short

periods of ‘direct’ instruction, pupils

began to do wonderfully well. Soon

they were able to take me for reassuring

circuits, and I knew what to expect on

their first solos.”

With a commercial imperative in

passing pilots with the minimum of

flying hours and the least damage

to aeroplanes, other schools rapidly

followed Merriam’s example and the

concept of dual instruction was born.

The Bristol School though was the clear

leader in allowing new pilots to qualify,

at an average of around two per week.

As the First World War loomed, out of

around 250 aviator’s brevets awarded in

the year 1913, 117 had come from the

Bristol School.

Merriam was precluded active wartime

service due to defective eyesight,

although he continued to instruct as a

RNAS officer. After the war, Merriam

began an agency to place pilots in jobs

with the pioneer airlines and promote

export sales of British designs. He was

also a pioneer glider pilot, and although

his first sailplane crashed on the opening

day of Britain’s inaugural gliding event

at Itford it was rebuilt as a dual-control

two-seater for Britain’s first gliding

school at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.

Merriam had been a relatively

venerable 31-years-old when he learned

to fly in 1911. After he passed away at

the age of 76 in November 1956, one

of his students remembered Merriam’s

“involuntary bath in the Brooklands

sewage farm”.

“One of my more mirth-provoking

recollections is the sight of him

emerging black, dripping and stinking

after a little monoplane that he was

flying had crashed into one of the filter

beds,” said Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip

Joubert. ”Even on this occasion, his

usual good humour did not desert him.

I think it was probably this side of his

character and his infinite patience that

made him such a good instructor.”

The man who taught

the Air Force to fly

Frank Warren

Merriam is today an

unlauded hero

Columnist