No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School RAAF

No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School RAAF
Trainee at No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School, c. 1941
Active	1940–45
Country	Australia
Branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Role	Introductory flying training
Part of	Central Area Command (1940–41) No. 2 (Training) Group (1941–45)
Garrison/HQ	Narrandera, New South Wales
Service	World War II
Aircraft flown
Trainer	Tiger Moth

No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School (No. 8 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. No. 8 EFTS was established in September 1940 at Narrandera, New South Wales. Training ceased in December 1944 and the school was reduced to maintaining base infrastructure and aircraft. It was officially disbanded in June 1945 and renamed Care and Maintenance Unit (CMU) Narrandera. The CMU was disbanded in December 1947.

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. 8 Elementary Flying Training School was formed at Narrandera, New South Wales, on 19 September 1940, and came under the control of Central Area Command. The school occupied the site of the recently constructed civil airfield, as well as surrounding government land. Its inaugural commanding officer was Flying Officer G.F. Hughes. Despite primitive accommodation and lack of infrastructure at Narrandera, the first sixty students arrived at the school on the day of its establishment. Flying training did not get completely under way until mid-November. The school's strength as at month's end was 469 staff, including thirty-six officers. Recent newspaper reports had suggested that the Narrandera base would be closed owing to "unsuitable ground" and "the direction of the prevailing wind ... allied with the surrounding terrain". A cyclone hit the airfield on 6 December, destroying twenty-two de Havilland Tiger Moth trainers in a matter of minutes and damaging others. The RAAF resolved to replace the wrecked aircraft as soon as possible and, the next day, the Minister for Air denied the earlier reports that the base was unsuitable and would be closed.