May 1, 1943
Sat. 11:00 P.M.
Dear Folks:
I’m sorry I haven’t written more this week. The evenings seem to go so fast. I sit down to write and then we all get to talking about our flying that we did for the day and so the evening just slips away.
So far I have 4 hrs. and 2 min. in the air. I got sick the first day and the third day but I will be okay now (I hope). Today I did a take-off and a landing by myself. I also did a power on stall and a power off stall and a spin, and I brought the plane out of them too. Boy it is quite a thrill to be up there and have that plane headed straight down for the ground. In a spin the plane is almost standing on its nose and turning round and round sideways in a loop. When you pull it out you stop it from turning around first. Then I can look right over the instructor’s head and see that ground down below. I then bring the stick back slowly and the nose slowly begins to come up. I then bring the nose way up until we are almost going straight up. I then level off. Oh it is lots of fun.
You should see the black eye I have. I got it playing basketball. A fellow hit me with his elbow. Everybody laughs when they see me.
The instructor gave me a couple of compliments today. He said that I made a good take-off. And he said that I have good coordination. And that is all this flying is. To be able to do about 6 things at once.
You know I have to be looking in all directions all the time besides watching 5 or 6 instruments. And I have both hands and both feet busy at the same time. So you see I’m pretty busy when I am in the air. About 5 or 6 more hrs. and I will be soloing I think. Well folks I got a letter from Dort the other day and one from Mother today. It had that clipping in it. I’ll write more tomorrow (if I can).
So long,
Alva
I wrote this in the bathroom.
Ancestors Across the Ages 