Winding Down - what to do next?

Seventy-five ATA Ferry pilots, both experienced and relative newcomers, applied for Royal Aero Club Certificates in the last few months of 1945 under what was called the 'ATA Wings' Scheme, although it's not clear whether they actually did the (very basic) flying test, or simply recorded the number of hours on the highest aircraft 'class' on which they were qualified..

For example:

[The Royal Aero Club Certificate or 'Ticket' normally involved:

• 2 distance flights of at least 5km each, including:
• 1 altitude flight with a minimum height of 50 metres

The rules declared that:

• “The course should be marked out by two posts no more than 500 metres apart. After each turn round one of the posts, the pilot must change the direction of flight when going round the second post so the circuit is an uninterrupted series of figures of eight”

“The method of alighting for each of the flights should be with the motor stopped at, or before, touching the ground. The aeroplane must come to rest within a distance of 50 metres from a point previously indicated by the candidate”

For the relative newcomers, it was a chance to gain an 'A' Certificate which would allow them to fly for pleasure (or potentially, business) after the war, but Commanders and Senior Commanders like Marcus Hale or Peter Mursell who clearly had not gained a Royal Aero Club Certificate before the war - mostly because they learnt to fly in the RAF or Fleet Air Arm - applied too.

Here is the list of those pilots:

 ... but if the women had hopes of flying commercially after the ATA, most of them were, as we have seen, destined to be disappointed.