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Part 3-29th January 1942 to 4th February 1943 The pressure is on.



After the long and tiring journey from the UK,and the formalities at the reception centre at Turner Field,Albany,Georgia,U.S.A it was time to travel to Lakeland in Florida,as the future airmen travelled across America they observed the beauty of this new found country,the numerous orange groves,lakes and everglades,if you had the misfortune to have an engine failure over them then the allogators or snakes would have you for lunch,many of the barren satellite fields were far from home keeping airplanes from clogging up the intense circuit,the American instructors were tough and unforgiving,you could get a 'wash out' for the slightest misdemeanour,step out of line and you were washed out the next day,one student taxied into another Stearman scratching the paintwork,another wrote off five aircraft in a take off accident in one go,the scrap compound was an indication of the attrition rate,a pile of Stearmans that had been wrecked in a freak storm and used for spares,airplanes were valuable and they did not want to loose too many,as you can see from the U.S.Army Air Corps rules below issued to every student and drummed in constantly,flights were strictly VMC ( Visual flight rules )a term unheard of in those days,but meaning that the ground should be visible with no flying in clouds whatsoever,the inherent and real dangers of vertigo had claimed many a student loosing sight with the ground and spinning in-



The Boeing PT-17 Stearman was the airplane used for training,all fifty five of them neatly lined up gleaming with yellow wings and blue fuselages,the red dot of the American roundal standing out like a sore thumb,with the seven stars and stripes proudly displayed on the rudder,powered with a variety of engines usually 225 hp Continental or Lycoming motors,she was a rugged man sized machine.



Not far from the two huge steel and concrete hangars which were large enough to accomodate two regulation hockey rinks,were the barrack blocks,administration offices and mess hall,all laid out in much the same quadrangle formation as you would have found in any period university,the mess hall was high ceilinged and beamed in the Tudor manner.It seated 250 at refectory tables,all buildings were built to withstand hurricanes and painted in restful colours inside and out,and were erected acording to plans of the U.S.Army,for tropical posts.Each building was tightly screened and there was a ten foot high esplanade around each floor so there is a cooling breeze on the hottest day or night,there was a heating system available for winter use if needed.
While some of the schools chose a housing system of placing four students in a suite,the school at Lakeland was based on the community principle of thirty boys to each barrack.The owner of the school was Albert.I.Lodwick who was himself a leading figure in North American aviation,a big believer in good fellowship.



The students day began at 5.30 in the morning with reveille,roll call and formation,followed by half an hour of calisthenics,breakfast followed and by 7.30 am,those that were assigned to morning flight,were on the line with their instructors,those assigned to morning ground school were in their classrooms absorbing the principles of aerodynamics,theory of combustion engines,meterorology or any of the book subjects of the day that airmen would need to know,the classroom groups would then fly in the afternoon.The morning and afternoon periods would have been alternated weekly and were for a reason,any Florida pilot would have told you then that there was as much difference in the lift of the morning air,and in the afternoon air in Florida as there is between the Sahara and the Arctic wastes.
The entire school knocked off for lunch at 11,30 am-not the conventional lunch hour but remember these guys had been up and at it since 5.30 in the morning ! Lunch was a bountiful meal,served under the vaulted ceiling of the mess hall by impeccably neat coloured waiters in white coats.
This gives the historian a great insight into the efficency and planning that went into the Arnold Scheme,if it had not been for this ability to train in such good conditions that Florida offered then the training back home in the bleak and awful weather that the UK was then experiencing would have severly delayed the production of suitable aircrew.



Picture of the recreation rest room taken by my father at Lakeland during 1942.



Lakeland looked like this from the air,the Lockheed Lodestar was a regular visitor carrying passengers across America,note the rows of tiny Piper Cub aircraft on the left operated by the resident civil flying school.



The beautiful Lakeland civic centre.



Well it could not have been all work,my fathers smile says it all !

To be continued...14 months of hard work and time for embarkation.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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