April 27, 1944

April  27, 1944

Dear Mother:

I guess it is about time I wrote again.  I wrote last about a week ago so I guess this one is long overdue.  Anyway I can still use the old excuse of no time I guess.

We have been on a new schedule this week.  If I were getting night flying as some of the fellows are I doubt if you would have even received this one.  Our day starts at 08:00 in the morning when we fall out for an hour of P.T. we get back at 0900 and take showers and get ready for breakfast at 09:20.  Breakfast is never ready on time but we have to keep our schedule even if we have time to eat or not. Classes start at 09:45 and last till 11:45.  We then get off till 1200 when we have dinner.

Dinner is just a hit or miss affair because there is such a short time from breakfast till dinner.  We go to the flight line at 1300 and stay till 1800, we then have an hour to do what we have to during the day such as go to the canteen, get hair cuts, read the bulletin boards etc besides have a retreat parade and stand in line for evening news.  We eat at 1900 and go back to the line at 1930 and are there till 0200.  That is just about an 18 hour schedule with few loop holes and spare time.  Thank goodness my week like that doesn't start for some time to come.

I got the box the day before yesterday.  Everyone was glad to see it including me.  Such things are pretty much of a surprise to me.  I never expect one and then all of a sudden it pops up.  The chocolates were very good of course.  I like the raisins very much because they were a surprise to me.  I haven't had anything like that for some time.  They sure brought back the picture of the pantry shelf with the beans in front of the raisins to save them.  I guess raisins ran out fast while I was home.  I got Mary's contribution.  I got a couple of them and they were good.  I left them in my locker at night and they were pretty well gone by the morning.  I guess the night fliers are hungry when they get home.

Not much out of the ordinary happens around here; just the training keeps going and changing all the time.  I finally got in that cross country I wrote about so long ago.  It had been put off about 2 weeks because of "Unusual weather conditions" along the route.  You see you can't just go out and fly the trip any time but must get a clearance.  When we could get clearances we couldn't get the weather.  I flew the trip in a ship that was a poor excuse for a good plane.  It flew like a "mac" truck and had to have a lot of control movements to get any reaction.  The airspace indicator was off 20 mph; the radio made a terrific racket, so much so that I listened to it very seldom and then only when the engine was on the left mag because once there it made a little less noise.  When I was on the last 100 miles the weather started to close in and the engine almost quit because of air in the carb.  I only found 4 of my important check points so that I felt lost most of the way.  And to cap it off my parachute fitted too loose so that I knew only the most extreme circumstances would separate me and that crate.  Well I got back all right a little grayer for my experience.  There really isn't much to such a ride if you have a good ship and everything is in order.  It was more or less a joy ride and I guess I enjoyed it just the same.

We are now getting our instrument training.  There really isn't much to such that can be told except that it is a lot like link trainer only not at all like it.  You can get the simulated conditions in a link but never the real thing.  This is really precision flying.  You don't get a lot of leeway on altitude and air speed.  Also the instruments and you don't always agree but you can always bet you are wrong.  They have a word for the sensations you get but I forget what it is.

All this talk about graduating is all well and good but I guess no one can plan on it till the day before.  So far our sqn. has had no wash outs but they may start most any time.  I am trying to get my check rides so pretty soon I will know how I stand here anyway.

I saw in the paper that "Al" Seward was missing in Europe.  That came as kind of a shock to me.  I had no idea he was anywhere near the fighting.  That kind of brings things close to home.  I always used to think that you didn't loose navigators but I guess you do after all.

So Bob Page is the local air plane spotter.  Maybe I can send him something to put in his collection.  I will try to answer your last letter next time because I want to close this one.

With love

Austin