Page "Adolf Galland" Paragraph 8

During the final years of the Weimar Republic, jobs were scarce and life was hard for the Galland family economically.

Adolf had some experience of flying gliders so he applied to the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule or DVS ( German Commercial Flying School ) which was heavily subsidised by Luft Hansa.

He was one of 100 successful applicants out of 4, 000.

After ten days of evaluations, he was among just 18 selected for flight training.

Adolf was then assessed on performance.

Those that did not reach the standard were sent home.

Galland's first flight was in an Albatros L 101.

His early career went badly.

On one flight, he made a heavy landing and damaged the undercarriage of his aircraft.

Later, while leading three aircraft in formation, two of them collided.

No one was killed, but Galland was judged to have employed poor formation tactics.

These incidents affected him so badly he was convinced he would soon be sent home, and he applied to join the German Army.

In the meantime, he carried on with his flight training.

Galland did not receive a reply from the Army and settled down to continue his training.

Flights in an Albatros L 75 and the award of a B1 certificate allowing him to fly large aircraft over in weight helped him regain his confidence.

Around the same time, the Army accepted his application, but owing to his successful training and improved flying, the flying school refused to release him.

By Christmas 1932, he had logged 150 hours flying and had obtained a B2 certificate.