May 20. 1943

Dear Dad:

I am having a rather slack time now because I finished up my day-flying last Sunday. There are still a few left in our flight who have not quite finished so we keep four planes going. For the rest of us the remaining 8 days will drag. We are supposed to stay over at the flight room and with nothing to do that is very dull so this morning about four of us have come back here to the barracks. I feel moderately secure as my instructor has gone on a 3-hour crosscountry.

We did some night-flying on Tuesday. This was an additional two hours to our training and all of us, especially we who had finished our general flying didn’t like the idea at all. We had never done night flying off runways and taxying etc is usually more hazardous at night. However it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable trips I can remember. I had a solo check fairly early in the night and made a perfect landing and then took off at 0230 on a solo crosscountry. It was a bright moonlight night and the air was absolutely smooth which made accurate flying easy. (At this time of year it is nearly always moderately bumpy during the day). We were radio equipped and reported our position at each turning point, ask for permission to take off and land, the height to fly, all in R/T code.

My instructor is well-liked by all the students and no wonder. He is sergeant-major for our squadron and so walks down the ranks with the CO on an inspection. Last Friday the CO tapped me for a haircut and that is as far as it went. Others, similarly tapped had to do a little extra work that night. On the other hand, my instructor in his capacity as sgt-major always calls me out to act as marker for our flight.

We will leave here on the 28^th. There is another chap from Kelowna in the class and he says there is no Sunday train to Kelowna. If this is correct I will try and stay over in Kamloops with the Hawkshaws. Much of the leave will have to be spent in travelling so I won’t be able to be home very long. Also if I am lucky enough to be commissioned I suppose I may have to go as far as Vancouver to be out-fitted.

One of the newest officers on this station is one who was in my class at high school. I hadn’t seen him for ten years. He finished up at Claresholm in February in the same class as Colin McLaren.

With love
Tony.

[Note: Transcriptions provided by collection donor.]