Well, yesterday was supposed to be the first day of flying for me but due to the army efficiency I didn't get to go up. We are divided into four flights of 20 men each. Each man is supposed to have 45 minutes of flying at a time. Well, yesterday they had five planes so the first group flew all morning. My group flew in the afternoon but we had to follow the schedule so only half of us got to fly, and I wasn't one of them. We came back to school in time to drill and then we went running during P.T. I got a box of cookies from Aunt Ruby in the mail and some letters from you and Doris. In the morning we loafed around doing nothing until 9:00 and then we got ready for flying. Well, we waited for the bus from 0915 to 1130. During that time we played shuffle board. Just right at 1930 we went to the auditorium to see a picture on planes. It was mostly on training planes. This morning I had a class in C.A.R. (Civil Air Regulations) from 0800 to 0900. It's about traffic rules of the air and safety measures. Then we went out to the airport at 9:30. Well when we got out there the red flag was flying. That means it's too windy or bad weather and you can't fly. The wind was blowing at a rate of 35 miles an hour. All the planes we use are cubs or aroncas. Well two of us were assigned to one instructor. The other boy and I went out with our instructor and untied the plane from the ground. Then a guy came out and said it was too windy to go up so we tied the plane down again, but one of the guys went up anyway so my instructor said let's go so we untied it again. I went up first because I didn't get to go up yesterday. Well the wind was so strong we went about 10 feet taxing and then took off. Before we started the inst. got out and had to spin the propeller. First he said switch off and I checked to see that the ignition system was off and then I said switch off. He spun the prop two or three times and then said switch on, and I turned the switch on and said switch on. He spun it and the motor started. The plane is a cabin plane and he sits in front. He got in and told me to put my feet on the peddles and follow through with the stick while one hand is always on the throttle. Well he took off and flew for about 10 minutes. Everything looked real small and all the fields looked green. There were a couple of streams wandering about and two railroads. The air was smooth and I wasn't affected in any way except once or twice I had to yawn to take the pressure off my ears. After we had flown for 10 minutes he told me to take over and fly a straight course. Well it sure was fun. We were heading right into the wind and every so often the plane would start to go to the right or left and I would have to turn it back on the course. You keep on a course by following a road or a fence line. After I had flown a while he made a few turns then told me to make the turns. On the first turn I lost some altitude but after that I kept the nose up on the turns. I made a number of turns of 360 degrees and then some figure eights. it was quite windy so when you went east or west the wind drift was pretty much. We flew at an altitude of 3,000 feet. I flew for about 30 minutes and then we went back to the field. He came around into the wind and started down. The ground looked a little funny coming up to meet us but it wasn't bad. The wind was so strong that when we came in right into the wind we couldn't get down so he had to slip in. We rolled along and then he told me to put on the brakes. We stopped and two of the guys grabbed the wings to keep the plane from flowing over while we taxied to the hanger. By that time it was so windy nobody else went up. We tied the plane down and then we got some papers to read on flying. It's a booklet and we read so many pages a day. We came back to school at 1145. After chow I have a free period then I take History at 0230. That is my only subject that I was taking before. At 0330 I have a course in first aid and then I have PT at 4:30. Tonight we had a community sing at 1930 in the auditorium. Some of the guys played the piano for us. I studied from 2030 to now. Boy they don't give us much time to study. I sure do hope it's nice out tomorrow so I can fly again. I already wrote a letter to Ella. Those sox were OK, you can send some more if you want. I am enclosing a mother's day present. I hope you got my card all right. We got paid $86 and they took $10.75 + 25 cents out. The ten was for my PT uniform and the 25 cents was for a pool table they installed today. Well, it's time for bed so I'll close.

Love,
Rae