The Portuguese Air Force bucked the training trend in the mid-1990s when it returned seven old de Havilland Canada Chipmunks to operational status. These veterans are still performing a vital task, as Stefan Degraef and Edwin Borremans discover.
Portuguese Chipmunks
For all air forces, screening, selection and streaming of student pilots is vital for a sound operational structure. Today, many air arms outsource the screening process to general aviation schools, often staffed by former military pilots and equipped with modern light aircraft.
In contrast, the Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) brought seven DHC-1 Chipmunk trainers out of eight years of storage to perform the same task. Thoroughly modified and continuously updated, the ‘new generation’ Chipmunks are used to screen pilot candidates as well as trainees attending the Academia da Força Aérea (AFA, Air Force Academy) at Base Aérea No 1 (BA1) at Sintra, close to Lisbon.
Sixty-plus years
The first of an eventual 76 Portuguese Chipmunks was delivered to the then Escola Militar de Aeronáutica (Military Aeronautical School) at Sintra in 1951. These DHC-1s replaced obsolete Tiger Moths that had been in Portuguese service since 1934.
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