To fly for the RAF Roelfzema first had to qualify. Poor vision had disqualified him earlier from mandatory service in the Dutch reserves. The glasses he wore for visual correction should have disqualified him from pilot training as well. Ever resourceful, Roelfzema worked around this by smuggling in a lens and palming it during his vision test. He passed and was sent to Canada for flying school. He trained in single-seat fighter aircraft and was awarded the gold cufflinks on graduating his training course given to the best pilot cadet in the training group.