28 October 1936

Dear Mother:

I has been blowing a gale here in England for the last week which has naturally put a cramp on our flying.

We cannot practise landings because of the gustiness, but we go up every day and practise tail spins, steep turns with and without engine, etc. I have done no less than 20 tail spins in my course so far - it is the favourite manoeuvre around here it seems.

All this adds to our lying time and will make our solo time look sick. We were all on the verge of going solo when the weather had to come along. Well here's hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Col. Lindbergh has an aeroplane of his at the Reading Aerodrome here. It is manufactured by Phillips & Powis and "Lindy" often comes over to the aerodrome alone and flies around. A couple of boys swing his prop but no crowds and everything is natural - must be a relief to him - nobody pays any untoward attention to him. All the fellows here naturally watch his landings with a critical eye. Anyway, I can say Lindy and I were flying this morning from the same aerodrome.

If I pass successfully through this school I shall be Gazetted Acting-Pilot Officer Martyn at Uxbridge. I heard today that the R.A.F. pay $20 an hour to Phillips & Powis to train us in flying. On top of this of course is our salaries. So the expense must be terrific. Flying alone which is 50 hours in this two-month course is $1,000 a piece.

I should like to swipe one of our silk parachutes and send it home -one would make a thousand handkerchiefs.

My friend Edgar Good just got news from home that his father was badly hurt in an automobile accident in Montreal and will be in hospital for three months.

I sure would hate to be eased out of this job - it's too good to be true. In three or four months I shall be on easy street after clothes are bought. I hear that after Reading we go on Hawker Harts which have 12 cylinders and a terrific speed.

Tomorrow night is another dining-in night and we will probably have more R.A.F. guests.

One of the lads from Maidenhead school dropped over today and informed us that 3 boys were kicked out already. This school started at the same time as ours so anything can happen here yet but the boys seem a good crowd.

Our crowd is a wonderful bunch. One lad worked as a wireless operator on ocean liners and lived in the Falkland Islands. The other, from India, was an officer on the British-India Steamship line while one of the lads sails to Spain three times a year to meet his parents. I'm afraid these will have to stop now. His dad was head of Great Mining Company there.

Another of our lads has a dad who is Sir" Gratton Bushe". An airman pilot who was a rancher in New Zealand swells list. Boy! What a cosmopolitan crowd. The colonials seem to be in the majority here.

I'll bet Jean looks all right in her new blue coat. By the way, I haven't had a letter from her lately.

Mother could you send out my basketball shorts and shoes if not too expensive. I would certainly appreciate another laundry bag. My other one was lost in a London hotel - it was sent to laundry by mistake with clothing and I never got it back.

We have wonderful marble showers with loads of hot water for shaving etc. - really, I'm getting a bit spoiled here. - I would like to get home on the weekends but I'm afraid this would be impossible.

Lots of Love
Bill