July 31, 1943
8:45 P.M. Sat.
Dear Folks:
Well here I am back again. You will notice I am in Barracks 138 now instead of 150. I have started instrument and night flying. Last night was my first night flying. Boy it is really pretty up there at night. You can see lights shining for miles and miles. When you get over a city you see all those lights blended in different colors. It makes quit a sight. I was up with my instructor for 45 min. I made 3 landings with him, and then he got out and I went up solo. I flew the traffic pattern for 30 min. I made 7 solo landings. Night flying is altogether different than in the daytime. You can’t hardly see whether your plane is level or not. It seems like you are closer to the ground too. Some of us went to an auxiliary field to do the flying.
I flew over just before dark with another kid for a passenger and I came back as his passenger. We got quite a kick out of that. It is sort of hard to sit back there and let somebody fly it when you know that he isn’t any better than yourself. All I could do was sit there and hope for the best. We got back okay. I was told that I made the best showing of any of the fellows who flew from that field. This was because I made high approaches while most of them were coming in low. I came in high with full flaps and no power or very little power. While most of them went way back and came in low with power. They like high approaches here because you are not so apt to take a tree top with you. But my landings weren’t so good. I was bouncing all over the runway. There were 2 fellows that didn’t solo. It seems that they couldn’t judge the distance to the ground.
On instrument flying we get under a hood so we can’t see out. We then fly entirely by instruments. This is going to be sort of nerve racking. I made an instrument take-off yesterday. To do this my instructor lined the plane up in the middle of the runway. I then proceeded to take off by watching the gyro compass. I wasn’t under the hood but I could have just as well been because I wasn’t looking at anything except the compass and air speed indicator. Up in the air it is sort of funny. You feel almost sure you are turning one way but the instruments say you are flying level or you might even be turning the opposite way. You have to depend entirely on the instruments. You just can’t depend on your feelings at all.
I now have over 40 hours in here at Basic. I am an upperclassman now. The new class came in Thurs. They put upperclassmen and lower class men in the same barracks. Half and half.
Thurs. night we went to Greenville to a radio broadcast by the army air forces. I think they broadcast next Mon. coast to coast. Lt. William Holden was one of the announcers.
I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 A.M. this morning. We got up at 8:30.
Boy it is getting closer and closer to the end. I have just 13 weeks of training left. Then I will be either a flight officer or a 2nd Lt.
Time goes pretty fast here. It seems like I just got here. And I’ve been here 5 weeks already. My final average in Navigation was 85. We take aircraft identification now. For this they flash a picture of a plane on the screen. It is on there just 1/50 of a second. If you blink your eyes you just don’t see a thing. I don’t half the time anyway. We are taking them at 1/10 of a second now. You can imagine how long 1/50 of a second is. I can’t even recognize them if I have a picture right in my hands so I can see where I will have a nice time in that class. Wow!
We got paid today so I think I will be sending home a money order soon. If I ever get to the post office. Unless I decide to keep it and start buying my new uniforms when I get to Advanced. Of course I’ll wait until I’m sure of getting through.
I suppose Dort will think she’s somebody. She’ll be a senior when she goes back to school. And Jim will think he’s somebody because he is in high school. What grade is Meredith in? The 2nd grade?
Well folks take care of yourselves. Say it sounds like you have quite a lot of hay.
So long,
Alva
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