13 January 1937

Dear Bob:

Thirty Hawker Harts powered by Rolls Royce Kestrof Engines ticking over on the tarmac - that's the music that greets me each morning. When we run them up a mechanic has to lie over the tail to hold it down. The mechanics and riggers are wonderful chaps - when you come down they run out to your machine and get hold of wings to assist you. As soon as you stop they run up on wing to ask you "how is she running, sir?" Tears of joy almost come to their eyes when you tell them she's working like a charm. They love their respective machines and your life depends on them. The way the crew of my machine look after their Hart is wonderful to see. It's always spotlessly clean. They start the machine inertia starter. They fasten your Sulton harness for you. One on each wing tip while you taxi on tarmac. You salute and they leave the tips and watch you till you come in and run out to meet you on landing and hold the wings while you taxi in. I could buy every house on our street back home for one of these Harts, i.e. all on one side of the street, say twenty of them. When it comes to responsibility, we have it. When it comes to Great Britain, we have the finest equipment and personnel in the world. My crew say "our machine is the best one of the flight" - real spirit.

When you work with these Englishmen you find out why they run a quarter of the world - the officers are all public school men and wonderful chaps with more breeding than any people on the earth. The discipline is marvellous. When we are ordered from A to B, we go from A to B or out of the Force we go. This discipline makes our Force the finest on earth. Air Commodore Nutting OBE, DEC, MC, etc. told me that being a Canadian, I might find things quite different, but that guts and courage were great assets, but discipline will pull you through stickier do's than guts. I Can believe him. He is a wonderful chap - a man you would follow through any "do."

You don't have to ease this machine off on take-off. Just try and hold it on the ground when you open wide your Rolls Royce engine. It makes a Hawk look like an old pusher. It climbs nearly straight up - the altitude needle simply spins. The wires howl. I get six months at F.T.S. so you can imagine the standard of flying required. We all have wireless sets in our rooms interconnected with each other like at home. This time I'll probably learn something. We have to use it for night landings, etc. The controls are much stiffer than the Hawk owing to the greater speed.

How did you spend Christmas? There is no snow here, but it is bitterly cold with raw winds. Yet I come down wringing wet with perspiration - sitting behind a Rolls Royce is no cold proposition.

What did Ronny get for Christmas?

Love Bill