Mon. noon.

Dear Folks,

Received your letter this morning with Rosie Brewer‘s letter. It was really interesting and gives you a good idea of what things are like over there. I am sending it back along with the charm. I have never seen an elephant that small before.

I also got a letter from Steve this morning. He said to tell you folks hello. He is in N.Y.City now waiting to go into advanced amphibious training. He thinks he will be made a (j.g.^[1]Lieutenant Junior Grade) before long. His address is:

Ens. C.S. Hempelman, USNR.
Advanced Amphibious Training Base
Navy 414, c/o Fleet Post Office
New York City.

From the sound of the address it might be more advanced than he thinks.

Flying is going alot better for me. I soloed Sat. morning and even if I do say so myself I did alot better job than I had expected.

I even think I surprised Long John because he didn’t have any criticism (sp.) to make. I made my solo after having 7 hrs. and 47 min. of dual instruction. The three landings I made while soloing were the only ones I haven’t ever bounced. Just before he told me to take it up I shot about 5 landings with him and I’ll swear that every one had four bounces in them. The Army likes three point landing that hit hard and stick when they hit. Long John said he didn’t care if I broke his neck as long as I did it by only hitting the ground once.

2010 Student Solo Flight in a Stearman P.T.

Fri. one of the cadets bailed out. He was practicing spins and when he recovered from one he held the rudder a little too long and went into a reverse spin. He then got excited and jumped which wasn’t necessary because these planes will come out of anything if you just sit back and relax and let the controls alone. The other day Long John took me up to about 8,000′ and put the plane into a 3 turn spin to the left and then hit the right rudder and went into a 3 turn one to the right.

After going through these 6 spins he let go of the controls and the plane stoped rotating, pulled itself out of the dive and flew straight and level. After doing all this we still had about 5,000′ to spare.

I hope to get in alittle more solo time today. We go on the flight line at 3:00 this afternoon. To answer a few of your questions: We usually get in about 45 min. of dual flying a day but pretty soon we will be flying two or more hours a day. We are only here 8 weeks and have to get in 65 hrs. of time in. When we are not flying we are suppose to be walking wings. This is a fellow gets on each side of the plane and walks along holding on to the plane keeping it from scrapping wings with other planes. Usually though everyone one is sitting around trying to keep out of work. Up at 6,000′ you might run into some clouds but the sky is pretty clear around here. The other day we flew over some and it is really a thrill but nothing to compare with your first solo.

A gosport is the rubber speaking tube that the instructor talks to you through. It plugs into the ear phones on your helmet. The living quarters here are spatious (sp.) and they are pretty but we are plenty crowded. The food is pretty poor but so far I haven’t had any desire to eat. They say flying affects you like that for awhile.

Let me know how things come out over the planned football trip. I’ll be looking for Karen’s picture. You didn’t need to send that money back I wish you would have gotten something for yourself. Thanks alot for getting the gift for me. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble. It sounds like a swell gift.

Give Karen a kiss for me.

With love,

Tom.