#7. E.F.T.S.
Windsor, Ont.
Nov. 5/40
Dear Mom,
Well, believe it or not, but I'm now well on my way to being a pilot. Of the 550 men in the Hunt Club, 105 made the grade as pilots & were posted to three stations, all in the east, for training. Nobody was more annoyed than I when the drafts were posted.
35 of us arrived in Windsor, at 6 A.M. this morning & within an hour we were in a lecture room learning air business. Our barracks are comfortable but nothing super. The grub however is really wonderful, that's how it should be of course in as small a station as this. Our instructors, both the fliers & ground school fellows, are civilians, hired by a private training co. Apparently there is absolutely no chance of training in the west.
It's been raining all day and overcast almost down to 1000 ft. Despite this I was the first of our bunch to go up for a familiarization flight. As a matter of fact it was so murky when we landed that they grounded the rest of the plans for the day. A bulky big parachute was issued to me & I climbed in the front seat of the Fleet Trainer. Within 10 mins we were 2000 ft. above the ground buried in a blinding mist & we immediately set about various acrobatics. Loops, slips, dives, spins, rolls - the whole works & boy did I love it. The Fleet is a sturdy but slow ship & apparently nothing can hurt it.
Another two weeks have been cut off our course & all late passes & leaves have been cancelled. We'll be sent on to our Intermediate School six weeks from to-day & everything points to it being in the east still. As far as I can ascertain we've lost out on our Xmas leave as well. However I think we get two weeks leave after six months of service.
I'm no longer an A.C.2, from now on we wear a prop badge on our sleeves & a white slip in our caps as an L.A.C. or (Leading Air Craftsman). That means an increase in pay $1.30 plus 20¢ (L.A.C.), plus 75¢ flying pay. They also gave us our flying kit, boots, caps, coats, coveralls etc. all furlined and supposed to be worth about $300.
How's the new house & where is it, what are the neighbours like etc? Are the boys improving in school? How's the Duchess?
I seem to be all in the dark about what's going on out there.
Love
Newton