I concentrate on my studies in ATTI

The professor who taught us aircraft materials was actually the younger brother of our principal and he had his subject at his fingertips. It was difficult to stump with any question on this subject and, the best part about him was that even he did not know the answer, he would never admit defeat and would make up some convincing answer.
Of course, he would remember what he had said and, at a later date, he would correct himself in a more convincing way. When it came to theory of flight, our professor was the grand old man who would come to Clive House in his tiny Morris Minor that he had brought with him from Britain. He was a good friend of our principal and both had seen service in Britain during the WWII.
Another interesting subject was the Compass Swinging – it was the setting up of a DR Compass (Direct Reading Compass) on an aircraft. We had two aircraft in Moitra & Co – one of them was a deHavilland Tiger Moth, a bi-plane. It was of wood and fabric construction. Another aircraft was a Piper L-5, it was a mono pane and was all metal construction. The activity was important because in those days, the DR Compass was a means of navigation for aircraft in the air and compass swinging was all about setting the compass so that the needle pointed in the correct direction. This was important because any error could jeopardize the flight.
Like others, I wanted to clear this hurdle of X-license in DR Compass while studying because once ne acquires any one license, he is exempt from appearing in several other subjects – he has to concentrate only on the subject of his specialization. But, unfortunately, that did not happen. (to be continued …)