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

February 17, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson Ariz.

Feb. 17, 1944

Dear A.P.

I vow right now to not write later than 2000 (8:00 p.m.) because I am very tired and need the extra hour of sleep.

I got your letter today and as I haven't written to you for some time I guess this one is due to you.  I got 4 different letters the day before yesterday but I can't answer them for a couple more days because I am again short of paper but have enough envelopes for the whole outfit.

A "Link trainer" isn't much of a plane.  It has all the instruments in it for cross country blind flying.  It has a two way radio although we only use it one way, instructor to student, no back talk.  They have 10 or 12 of these in a hanger and the instructors are non-coms who have had the training required to train others.

The instruments in the plane have identical sets upon the instructors table so that he can watch your altitude, air speed, rate of climb, etc while you watch them in the little plane.  You get a series of exercises on each lesson so that you get so that you can control your speed with the stick and not the throttle.  In the last lesson you get a chance to fly a course and to trace circles on a paper.  They are drawn by a machine that is synchronized to the trainer so that you can fly a course and have it traced for you to show your mistakes.

Link only lasts 5 hours so that every thing we learn is very elementary and little or no use in our present flying.

In our planes we have one way communication and it is of course from the instructor to student, again no back talk.  They use gas ports which is a rubber tube more or less that is attached to the helmet in such a way that the instructor can be heard very well.  The planes are equipped for electrical communication but we are not so we don't worry about it.

Today I had a check flight and it was not very much of a ride.  I gave him a pretty good ride and all he had to say afterwards that I had no dangerous characteristics and that my sight for a "forced landing" was not quite what he had picked out, my lazy 8s were appropriately what he wanted.  He didn't have any unfavorable comments however.

3 days ago I had a civilian check ride which was not quite so good.  He said that my torque correction in stalls was weak, my chandelles were not too good, my forced landing field was not too good but otherwise all right.  I also didn't try to gain enough altitude after a spin recovery.  I passed it all right. I don't have to sweat out any more check rides until I have completed 40 hours or more and that is not too long from now as I now have 36 hours to my credit.

From now on we will have to get 2 hours a day to finish on schedule.  I have 12 hours of solo now but must have 30 before the course is over so you see I have quite a way to go yet.  Everything is going according to schedule.  I have passed the 90 degree stage and the 180 degree as well and have only the 180 degree cross wind stage to go.

I got a letter from Aunt Emma the other day and she seemed to think that grandpa was coming along very well considering.

Well I must close now.  Tell Mother to write as soon as she gets her box and tell me what she thinks.

With love

Austin.

February 3, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson Ariz.

Feb 3,         

Jan 2  , 1944 

Dear A.P.

You were not home when mother wrote her congratulations for the solo.  Well I guess your letter will be along soon so I will be a little ahead of you.  Yes, it was quite a victory but it was not so great as you think.  It is much the feeling of learning to drive so that after you do get so that you can go alone it gets to be an old story.  In getting to be an old story you also get very sloppy and don't learn as fast as you could if under instruction.  However you do learn confidence and self reliance.

All the time you are learning you are under constant tension but up alone you can really relax and get so that flying becomes second nature.  You no longer feel wrong to dive at the earth, or see it above you instead of beneath you.

Around and around and around you go

I never got sick until I had my first unsupervised solo the other day.  I went up to do stalls and split S out of several.  When you pull out you are going so fast that it feels like your stomach is going out through the seat.  I got sick after a while and had to come down.  I had never been sick before.  you really want to get out.

Video on how to do a split S turn

You can't get too laxy up there because your will to live is stronger than your laxness.  Unconsciously you keep looking for other planes, beside you, above you or climbing up beneath.  You never can tell if some dumb son of a gun isn't looking for you.  I really keep away from the others.

Now that the lower class is doing a lot of solo work the junk yard out back is getting larger.  Broken wing tips are out there galore.  One fellow spun in from 500' and luckily wasn't killed.  The airplane absorbed most of the slack and he only lost a few teeth on the head safety.  One other fellow nosed over on a forced landing and broke a prop and tail.

To see more airplane boneyards, click here.

There really is no need for anyone getting seriously hurt because the planes are practically fool proof.  They can completely pull out of a spin if you keep your hands off the controls.  They will fly themselves.  They are unpredictable but if you can climb, dive, fly straight and level, and can turn or recover correctly from either of those altitudes you can flit a P.T.  Of course wind makes a difference on landings but the only thing you can do there is drag a wing.  

I get a heck of a kick out of flying.  You are really free to do what you want within reason.  If only the plane didn't make so much noise you could really live while you fly.

Today I really scared the wits out of myself.  I had to make a cross wind landing and consequently nearly scraped a wind.  When I had recovered completely I took off again and wished to heck I hadn't after it was too late.  After I was up 300' I wished I had stayed on the ground instead of coming around again and trying to figure out the wind.  Well it all worked out O.K. because the next landing was very good and no trouble at all.  It was rather a victory for me.

Some of the fellows are riding the old "Maytag Washer".  None seem to know just why they are up there except that they give pretty enough rides or that they continually or occasionally break regulations.  They are given a good chance to prove themselves because they get 4 check rides before they are washed.  They get 3 civilian check rides and an Army ride.  If they flunk all the civilian but give the Army a good one they pass them all.  If they flunk the Army and pass the civilian they still stay.  Right now I do not worry too much but everyone worries about them at some time or another.  You wouldn't be normal if you didn't.

Today I got an hour of training that is worth about $25 an hour if you tried to buy it.  I rode for an hour in a Link Trainer, an instrument worth $25,000, often called the "infernal machine" because you could go bats if you stayed in there too long.  You probably know what they look like from pictures.  You get in and pull down the hood and you could swear the plane is diving, climbing, turning, or anything but the dials don't move which means you are going straight and level.  They are a lot of fun but will be a lot of work to figure out the new instruments.  There are a lot of misconceptions of instruments made but get straightened out after a few rides.  You can see that the training I am getting is invaluable right now.

Link Trainer controls taken from this rebuilding effort.

Not much room here!

A tight fit!  I hope you're not claustrophobic.

I sure would like to come home and give you a ride in a plane.  We could really get a ride.  I guess planes are scarce right now so there is not much sense in coming right now.  I could give you some low level flying that would make your hair stand on end. (Here I am talking like a veteran.)  Well anyway I could have some fun.  The more you fly the more confidence you get and the quicker you learn to make decisions.  That's what makes pilots I guess.

With love

Austin