Aug 15, 1943
Sun. 6:00 P.M.
Dear Folks:
I guess I will drop you a line now. Friday night we went on our first night cross-country. It was a beautiful night. The moon was full and bright and the stars were bright. It was a perfect night for flying. I started out at 10:36 and got back at 1:00 A.M. We go on another one Tuesday night. That will be the last of our night flying here. So maybe I will have a little more time after that. We are required to have at least 80 hrs. here and I have about 83 hrs. now. I should end up with about 100 hrs. I get my instrument check tomorrow. I thought I would get it last Friday but I didn’t. Boy I hope I can pass that check! We fly in the afternoon tomorrow so the air will probably be rough which makes it hard to fly on instruments. You see on a hot day the air gets pretty rough in the afternoon. That’s because the air is heated on the ground and then the hot air begins to move up. It moves up in sort of a column. So first you are over one of these columns and the air has a tendency to push you up then you get off it and the plane sort of drops. So you put it together and it is like going over a bumpy road. About Wed. we will start formation flying. That should be fun but it will be a little touchy too.
I walked 2 tours off last night (another beautiful night) and 5 off today. So that leaves 6 tours for me to walk next weekend. We are due to be in our advanced school Aug 30. Boy I’ll be glad to get away from this place. For advanced we will probably go down to the southern part of Texas along the Gulf Coast. (That is if I pass this instrument check). It will be the parting of the ways for a lot of us because some will go to twin engine and some to single engine. I guess my instructor will have a lot to say about where I will be best off. But they go pretty much by our choice too.
Dort was telling about Herbie Post. That is Hondo, Texas where he is. That is down in the direction where I’ll be in advanced. Right now we are in the Northeastern part of Texas. I have flown up into Oklahoma. The boundry line is the Red River which is about 60 miles north of here. Our flight Friday night took us almost to the edge of Louisiana. One of these days when I get lazy I may fly over to Louisiana just for the dickens of it. You know on some days I fly long enough that I would be over half way home if I flew in a straight line for that long.
I’m getting anxious to see what I can do in advanced. The planes in single engine aren’t as large as these we fly now but they have 650 horsepower engines in them compared to 450 H.P. in these.
How much hay did you get this year? Ma said Dad had to stack some so that sounds like a full barn to me. How is the corn this year? You had a late spring for that, didn’t you?
We have been having melons some lately. The watermelons sure taste good but the muskmelons are sort of flat. We also have had some peaches on the table. We have had apples all the time. I suppose you will be having peaches before too long. I wish I could be home then. I have just about 11 more weeks of training then I hope I will get a 10 day leave. About the first part of November it will be.
How is old Babe making out anyway? Well folks I guess I better close and try to do a little studying. This aircraft identification is giving me a little trouble at times. I don’t know too much about this weather either. Be good everybody.
So long,
Alva
P.S. Yes Dort we go to the P.T. in our gym shorts. But we don’t have to go down any streets in a town. Just our own streets here. Also we run to P.T. and not walk. A.B.
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