No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School RAAF

No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School RAAF
Staff of No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School, December 1942
Active	1939–44
Country	Australia
Branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Role	Introductory flying training
Part of	Southern Area Command (1940–41) No. 1 (Training) Group (1941–44) No. 2 (Training) Group (1944)
Garrison/HQ	Parafield, South Australia
Service	World War II
Aircraft flown
Trainer	Tiger Moth Gipsy Moth Wackett Trainer

No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School (No. 1 EFTS) was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot training unit that operated during World War II. It was one of twelve elementary flying training schools employed by the RAAF to provide introductory flight instruction to new pilots as part of Australia's contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme. The unit was established in November 1939 as No. 2 Flying Training School at Melbourne, Victoria. It was relocated to Parafield, South Australia, in December 1939 and renamed No. 1 EFTS the following month. Training activities relocated to Tamworth, New South Wales, in May 1944; the school was disbanded in December that year.

Flying instruction in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) underwent major changes following the outbreak of World War II, in response to a vast increase in the number of aircrew volunteers and the commencement of Australia's participation in the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). The Air Force's pre-war pilot training facility, No. 1 Flying Training School at RAAF Station Point Cook, Victoria, was supplanted in 1940–41 by twelve elementary flying training schools (EFTS) and eight service flying training schools (SFTS). The EFTS provided a twelve-week introductory flying course to personnel who had graduated from one of the RAAF's initial training schools. Flying training was undertaken in two stages: the first involved four weeks of instruction (including ten hours of flying) to determine trainees' suitability to become pilots. Those that passed this grading process then received a further eight weeks of training (including sixty-five hours of flying) at the EFTS. Pilots who successfully completed this course were posted to an SFTS in either Australia or Canada for the next stage of their instruction as military aviators.

No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School was formed as No. 2 Flying Training School in Melbourne on 6 November 1939. Its inaugural commanding officer was Squadron Leader F.J.B. Wight. On 13 December, the school moved to Parafield, South Australia, after building work was completed there. Parafield was home to the South Australian Aero Club, and it was the airfield's position as the hub of civilian flight instruction in the state that led to it becoming the base for the first flying school the RAAF raised during World War II. The same principle was followed in establishing No. 3 Flying Training School (later renamed No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School) at Archerfield, Queensland, No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School at Essendon, Victoria, and No. 4 Elementary Flying Training School at Mascot, New South Wales.