March 1, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson Ariz.

Mar. 1, 1944

Dear A.P.

I have a chance to write a short letter because I want to get to bed early.  I have a check ride tomorrow which I can pass if I stay "on the ball" and it will be easier if I get a little extra sleep tonight.

Today I got a dual cross country ride of about 45 miles.  We had a little head wind so we made it in about 38 minutes and came home in a somewhat shorter time.  The plane wasn't too good and would only cruise at 85 miles an hour.  It also would not climb too well because we were about 11 miles from the main airport before we got to our altitude.  We went over some rather mountainous country and as I had a map I got a little used to picking out check points along the way.  As a whole the ride was rather uneventful.

We made a stop at a little airport and then came back over the same route.  on the way back we ran close to a pretty good size range of mountains.  We had a little fun watching them go by.  The air was pretty rough but not too much so.

I guess I kind of mislead you with this link trainer business.  All a Link Trainer is is a gadget to teach you instrument flying while still on the ground where you are still safe.  They can stimulate any kind of conditions in the plane that you can encounter in the actual flight.  You can do stimulated maneuvers of any kind in the ship but stay on the ground and move only around the axis of the plane. All the instruments are run by little .... and not by actual conditions.  They are called all kind of names and the name of "Infernal Gadget" really describes it.  It really is a series of gadgets and things can certainly go haywire if you don't know how to make the thing work for you.  I think I can find a picture of one if you want one but all you have to do is find a flying magazine around and you can find a picture.  They are not all you expect.

Well we are getting pretty well done here.  I have 10 more hours to go to finish the course and I could finish that in about 4 days easily or even less if they would let me.  As it is I guess I can't get my time in so fast now as I have been doing.  The instructor keeps talking about "when you get to Basic", so I guess I may get there yet.  We are scheduled to leave here the 11th or 12 of this month.  When we do go I can't say right now I am sorry.  The trouble is that the next place is likely to be much the same as this only a lot worse.  The only complaint is that most of these places are out in the desert and rather uncomfortable places weekends.

Pretty soon I am going to have to make a big decision, shall I go in for fighter or light bombardment training.  These are the only two choices we have.  If I go in for Fighter I may get assigned to P38s which is not too bad or I might get my choose of fighter planes.  I would kind of like that .  However if I go in for light bombardment I may get an A20 light bomber which would be just the thing but probably I would get a B17 or B 24 which are heavy bombers.  That is not so much to my liking.  You see twin engine fighters (P38) and multi-engine bombers are the only schools available out in the command area.  If I qualified for anything else I doubt if I could get it because they hate to train men out here and then lose them to other sections.  Right now I don't have a lot of choice to make anyway.

P38

B17 Bomber

B24 Bomber

It seems I am not too big to fly P38s or P47 and most of the modern fighters because they are really building big planes around the present motors.  I hate to think of driving a B24 or maybe a B29 because they handle like Mack Trucks even thought the training is the only training I can use after the war.  Very little in a commercial way has been done with single engine fighter training.  Well I won't be too disappointed which way it goes.  It isn't a choice of picking the least dangerous because none are safe.  I guess I have a lot to do before I get to fighter planes.  So I must get some sleep.

With love

Austin