January 27, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson, Ariz.

Jan 27, 1944

This is that Christmas seal you sent in my Christmas packages.

Dear A.P.

I am writing this letter in a little spare time I have before supper.  I haven't written for some time so I guess it's about time.

Flying isn't going too hot right now.  I don't know just what is the matter other than I haven't caught on to landings well enough to solo.  Several days I could have done it but the good weather has broken and cross wind landings here are messing up the works.  I now have 10:32 hours and that is 1:32 hours more than I have to have.  I have 56 landings and that is a lot more than the minimum.  On a whole I am very disgusted with myself.  Something is wrong and I should be able to take care of it. 3 of the fellows have soloed all ready.  I should have by this time but I guess I will just have to see what happens tomorrow.

We have a pretty tough schedule out here but it is not monotonous.  Each week we either fly first and go to school first and the next week we will do the opposite as last week.  This week we have classes in the morning along with P.T. and Drill.  We fall out for drill at 6:50 and drill till 7:30.  Then we have P.T. until 9:00 or later usually later so that we get in the barracks at 9:30.  Our classes start at 9:50 and last till 11:15.  We then have dinner and report to the flight line at 1300.  Between 1300 and 1700 we get an hour or more of flying and in between time we walk wing times and amuse ourselves in any way possible.  Sometimes they have classes and flying skills and such things as flight patterns, order of maneuver in flights.  They are usually very interesting and very helpful in flying if you can remember all that is said.

The field doesn't have mile long runways but they are pretty near as long.  It is somewhat longer than 3 miles around the field so it would make the diagonal about a mile long.  We have plenty of room to come down and have a long taxi at the end.  You see we use flaps and this cuts down the landing space as well as the speed.  Flaps increase lift a lot more than decrease speed.  You see we use only 10 degrees of flaps and the maximum is 30 degrees.  There are 3 auxiliary fields placed about 5 or 10 miles from the main field and it is here that we do our landing and later do stages.

Ryan Airfield

The whole set up is ringed by mountains that rise anywhere from 1000' to 6000' above the floor of the valley.  These mts form the boundaries.  These mountains are not so bad as you might think because they are very visible and as long as no flying is done in foggy weather there is not danger of running into one.  Of course your engine might fail when you are over that way but you should have enough altitude to stay out of them.  In fact they suggest that you fly over the valley rather than over near the mountains.

Taken from here.

We are going to be let out for 2 hours tomorrow night to go to town.  I will get a little chance to see what the world is like again.

Well I have to get about my business so until later.

With love

Austin.

Hope I get the watch soon!!!