23/11/41

Dear Carl,

I thought I'd write to you 'cos at last we have done quite a bit of flying but last night we damn near passed over your place so I thought I'd write to you.

Honestly Carl you have no idea how beautiful everything looks from up there at night everything below you is black as anything, then you see the different cities about you shining as brilliant as a Christmas tree honest Carl it takes your breath away we passed right over Dundas about seven thousand feet up, and you should see how beautiful Hamilton looks from the air. Last night we were up about 3 hours we made the same trip twice.

Last Night I had to Navigate the whole trip we hit every place dead on Made me feel happy as hell to think I was actually Navigating the ship. When the other fellow with me started his turn at Navigating he got lost after we left Paris so after flying around about a half hour and the pilot saw that the fellow didn't know where he was, the pilot flew back to Malton - That makes sort of a black mark on the guy's record. A couple of the fellows ended up over lake Ontario & the pilot had to take them back on his own. You'd be surprised how easy you can get lost if the Wind gets a little stronger and blows you off your course you can get lost quicker than anything if you forget to allow for the change of Wind.

It's funny how close to one another Hamilton, Galt, & Guelph seem at night It just seems that they are a few minutes apart from up there whereas they are about 30 miles or better.

We start our bombing excersises this next week I'm really looking forward to it - boy you get a kick out of flying on your stomach in the nose of the plane and looking down through the glass and seeing everything below you right now we go up the nose of the plane just to take drifts (Wind drifts to find our wind speed & direction).

I was up again to-day for about an hour with another bunch from another class just for the free ride, we got as far as Kitchener and we had to turn back because of the weather, It got foggy and crumby so the pilot turned back. Honest Carl it's surprising how this business get you, you get so as you've got to be flying all the time or you feel restless as hell, maybe I'm nuts, and I may regret it later but right night I feel as if I can hardly wait to get overseas and do some real bombing. We really haven't got much longer, 3 more months and we'll be ready to go. Honest Carl you'd be surprised how the idea of getting your wings at the end of the course makes you work, we study here an average of about 12 hours a day and honest the time seems to go zipping by.

I' guess I'll sign off now I'll tell you more about it when I see you

If you do get time to write I'd love to hear from you.

Your Loving Cousin
Fritz

p.s. Give my best regards to everybody at home Carl