The planes that we later flew in California were notorious for
not being able to get out of a spin. I had 60 hours of flying time
here and in January of 1943 was graduated from primary training
school. We had to fly with the commanding officer for our final test.
All five students with our instructor passed but a lot of the others
didn't make it. Three or four from each group were the average to
make it. We really liked our instructor and it was hard to part from
him and go on to the next school.
In February and March of 1943 we were at Gunter Field in Alabama for
our basic training. The airplane was the BT-13 with one wing and an
enclosed cockpit. It was bigger, more powerful and flew like a truck.
The controls were much harder to move but it was a safe plane to fly.
I don't remember anyone crashing a plane in primary or basic
training. At Gunter we started formation flying, night flying and
instrument flying. My instructor here was R.E. Umbaugh and I had
thirty two hours flying with him and forty two solo. When we were
flying solo in formation we were now developing confidence and were
starting to do things like flying close to the ground and chasing
each other around in the clouds.
We began doing more cross country flights to airports in the area.
Sometimes we flew with other students and the one in the rear seat
always flew the plane as that is where the instructor always sat. One
time I was flying with Bill Bell ( the son of the founder of Bell
Aircraft Inc.
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