Central Flying School RAAF

Central Flying School (CFS) is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) training unit, located at RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria. It operates the Pilatus PC 21 turboprop trainer. The school is responsible for training flight instructors, setting flying standards, and auditing flying practices. It is also home to the "Roulettes" aerobatic team. CFS was the first military aviation unit to be formed in Australia, in 1913, when its role was to provide basic flying training. Its current form dates from World War II, when it was re established to train flying instructors for the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). CFS was inaugurated at Point Cook, Victoria, in March 1913, and trained over 150 pilots of the Australian Flying Corps during World War I. It was disbanded in December 1919, and the newly formed RAAF's No. 1 Flying Training School took on its function in 1921. Re formed under EATS at Point Cook in April 1940, CFS relocated to New South Wales the following month, based first at Camden, then at Tamworth from April 1942, and finally at Parkes from January 1944. It returned to Point Cook in September 1944. By the end of World War II, the school had produced more than 3,600 instructors. It transferred to East Sale in November 1947. Since 1962, CFS has been responsible for three aerobatic display teams. The first, "The Red Sales", flew De Havilland Vampire jet aircraft. A second team, "The Telstars", was formed in 1963, also flying Vampires. The Telstars disbanded in 1968, just after taking delivery of new Macchi MB326H jets, when the RAAF curtailed display flying. The Roulettes formed in 1970, flying the Macchi, and continued to operate the type until 1990, when the team finished converting to the PC 9. As well as the Roulettes, CFS is responsible for the display work of the Air Force Balloons.

In December 1911, the Australian Department of Defence advertised in the United Kingdom for "two competent mechanists and aviators" to establish a flying corps and school. The following year, Henry Petre, an Englishman, and Eric Harrison, an Australian, were selected and commissioned as lieutenants in the Australian Military Forces. Petre and Harrison established CFS over the following year with four mechanics, three other staff, and five aircraft including two Deperdussin monoplanes, two Royal Aircraft Factory B. E.2 biplanes, and a Bristol Boxkite for initial training. Harrison made the unit's first flight in the Boxkite on 1 March 1914, while Petre, flying a Deperdussin later that day, registered its first accident when he crashed after snaring his tailplane in telephone wires. Its coterie of personnel by now referred to as the Australian Flying Corps (AFC), CFS commenced its first flying course on 17 August 1914, two weeks after the outbreak of World War I. The four students included Captain Thomas White and Lieutenants Richard Williams, George Merz, and David Manwell. A further eleven courses were run during the war years, graduating 152 pilots to a basic flying standard. Many of these students would go on to play a prominent role in the future Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), including Bill Anderson, Harry Cobby, Adrian Cole, Frank McNamara, Lawrence Wackett, and Henry Wrigley. Harrison took over the school's leadership in Petre's absence. The facilities were improved, and by the end of 1915, according to Wackett, they boasted "a good engineering workshop", "cottages for the married staff" and "a very comfortable officers mess". A year later, three AFC squadrons had been formed at Point Cook for service in the Middle East and France: Nos. 1, 3 and 4 Squadrons. In September 1918 the school, now made up of No. 1 Home Training Squadron, No. 1 Home Training Depot, and an aircraft repair section, became part of the Australian Imperial Force. Harrison was posted overseas in October and Major William Sheldon, former commanding officer of Nos. 2 and 4 Squadrons, was placed in charge of CFS. Little training took place in the year following the November 1918 Armistice; staff mainly did "odd jobs" such as making survey flights and promoting government bonds. In 1921, CFS's function was assumed by No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS), a unit of the newly formed RAAF.

[[File:Central Flying School RAAF 1940. JPG|thumb|left|upright=1.68|Central Flying School staff, shortly after the unit arrived at RAAF Station Camden, May 1940. Pictured include Flight Lieutenant (later Air Vice Marshal) B. A. Eaton (fourth from left) and Flying Officer I. F. Rose (centre, capless), commanding officer of the school in 1946–48. The most pressing need, however, was for flying instructors; the RAAF had only sixteen, and at least 1,000 were needed to meet Australia's obligations under EATS. CFS relocated from Point Cook to RAAF Station Camden, New South Wales, on 14 May. On establishment, its personnel numbered 470 officers and airmen, and its complement of aircraft included twenty three Tiger Moths, nine CAC Wirraways, and fourteen Avro Ansons. and Jerry Pentland, a World War I fighter ace with twenty three victories, who went on to become perhaps the oldest RAAF pilot on active duty. The outbreak of the Pacific War led to an influx of United States Army Air Forces units to Australian bases, including Camden. To make way, CFS moved to Tamworth, New South Wales, during March and April 1942. Tamworth was not considered a suitable airfield for the school's Wirraways, Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords, and a further relocation was deemed necessary, this time to RAAF Station Parkes, New South Wales, on 18 January 1944. Later that year, CFS moved once more, returning on 19 September to Point Cook. CFS remained at Point Cook for the rest of the war, by which time it had graduated some 3,600 instructors. The school relocated from Point Cook to RAAF Station East Sale (now RAAF Base East Sale), Victoria, during November and December 1947; its aircraft included seven Tiger Moths, nine Wirraways, three Oxfords, two C 47 Dakotas, one P 51 Mustang, and one Avro Lincoln. Newspapers reporting on its move to East Sale called CFS the RAAF's "university of the air". Official RAAF historian Alan Stephens described the school as "the Air Force's most important peacetime unit", going on to state that "CFS's pre eminence derived from its role as the Air Force's arbiter of pure flying standards, a responsibility it met by training instructors, examining and rating squadron instructors, conducting quality control tests at flying training schools, and auditing flying practices generally across the RAAF. Any fall in standards at CFS could in time be expected adversely to affect standards across the entire Air Force." Conversely, Stephens continued, the professionalism inculcated at the school flowed through to all flying units. Wing Commander Charles Read, who later became Chief of the Air Staff, served as commanding officer of CFS from August 1952 to May 1954. In May 1953, the school commenced jet instructor training with dual control De Havilland Vampires. The CAC Winjeel entered service in 1955, to replace the Tiger Moth as the Air Force's basic trainer, and began operating at CFS the following year. In March 1957, the school took on the responsibility of training the RAAF's air traffic controllers; this continued until May 1981, when the RAAF School of Air Traffic Control was formed as an autonomous unit at East Sale. thumb|left|upright=1.28|Vampire trainer, 1950s|alt=Single engined military jet with twin tailbooms in flight
CFS formed its first aerobatic team, called "The Red Sales", in 1962. The team consisted of four instructors flying Vampire trainers. On 15 August, they were practising a low level routine when they flew into a hill at , killing all four pilots and two passengers. Determined to overcome the shock of the accident, the commanding officer of CFS, Wing Commander Herb Plenty, quickly formed a new aerobatic team called "The Telstars", led by himself. Also flying Vampires, the team made its first public display in February 1963, six months after the Red Sales disaster. The Telstars began flying the Macchi in February 1968, but the RAAF cut back on display flying shortly afterwards, and the team disbanded in April. thumb|right|upright=1.28|PC 9 of the Roulettes aerobatic team, May 2012|alt=Single engined aircraft with red and white livery, in flight
The introduction of the Macchi permitted a brief flirtation with "all through jet training" starting in 1969, as it was expected to reduce the time necessary to turn out high quality pilots, and CFS had begun preparing to train instructors for this purpose in 1967. All through jet training was dropped in 1971, subsequently being labelled "an expensive way of finding out that some pupils lacked the aptitude to become military pilots". The Roulettes converted to the PC 9 in 1989–90. and to administer flying standards across the RAAF. Practising and performing with the Roulettes, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2020, remains a secondary task for team members after their instructional duties. As well as the Roulettes' displays, the school is responsible for the training and public relations work of the Air Force Balloons, which are co located with No. 28 Squadron at in Canberra. In their role supporting RAAF recruitment and public awareness, the two hot air balloons are often employed in rural areas as an economical alternative to displays by the Roulettes or other aircraft.