Letters

摘要

"The Best-Built Airplane That Ever Was" (Dec. 2015/Jan. 2016) brought back memories. I was a Navy-instructor in AT-6s at Corpus Christi, Texas, and Pensacola, Florida, and made my first carrier landings in one, as well as my last active-duty flight, in 1945. It was a wonderful, versatile plane, and I did not find them hard to land. I never even had a checkout in one. Somebody just told me how to start it, and on my first flight, I made a formation takeoff with another instructor leading on my left. About 10 years ago, when I was 85, my wife gave me a front-seat flight in an SNJ for my Christmas present. I put on my old World War Ⅱ flying suit and dogtags, and after we got some altitude, the pilot let me take the controls. We had a ball, doing wingovers, loops, and slow rolls-no sweat. It was the best day I had all year!