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Link Trainer
The Link Trainer was used for the instruction of visual flight, teaching the pilot how to fly in situations where he or she could not see, including fog, darkness and blizzards. It would have been used by most trainee pilots in Air Forces all over the world, especially during the World War II period.
The Link Trainer was used in New Zealand to train both military and civil pilots, and this one was used by an aero club and by the National Airways Corporation.
Before the Trainer was invented ‘blind flying’ was taught hands-on in the air, with the pilot, an instructor, and a hood over the cockpit of the plane. This would take 8 to 10 hours. With the Trainer, pilots learned blind flying safely, by themselves, and in half the time.
It was designed in the 1930s by American Edward Link who operated a flying school. His father ran a factory which made organs and Edward adapted the techniques of pumps and bellows to simulate the pitching, turning and banking of an aircraft. So realistic was the Trainer’s representation of rough flying that some trainee pilots had to be helped out of the cockpit, airsick.
Showing the examiner at his desk, while the Link Trainer is in use, Milsom, Palmerston North. Leo White Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.
Pilot and instructor with Link Trainer at the RNZAF base at Hobsonville in 1940. Leo White Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.
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