Last day as a Training Pilot
Heroes Remember
Last day as a Training Pilot
The last day I ever flew was pilot training, this Harvard,
we were flying a little twin engine aircraft, or a biplane rather
and this pilot cut me off on landing, with a Harvard.
So when I came down, I was looking to parachute back
and my instructor told me, said you know, "That's it."
They all wanted me to go over and see this Harvard.
These were the aircraft I was greasing and
oiling in Camp Borden for a couple of months.
I said, "I saw enough of those."
The world was gone as far as I was concerned.
They said, "You'd better come over here." There was a chap
I had gone to high school in St. Dunstan's got lost. He was
flying out of Summerside, got lost and landed in Chatham. He was
running out of fuel. And talk about growing up in a hurry.
The next day we heard through the grapevine
he got killed over Summerside. Crashed into another
aircraft, and the both of them got killed of course.
And it's surprising how they do that, I don't know.
That happened over Charlottetown here,
when I was in training and mother saw it.
Lance and from, two of them from the base here in Charlottetown
and they were playing games just over the cathedral
and they had run into one another.
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